Having completed his education at Tokyo University of Education, Ay-Ō began his career as part of the group Demokrato (Esperanto for Democracy) led by the surrealist artist Ei-kyu (Ei-Q), after having exhibited his work at the Yomiuri Indépendant Exhibition. A number of successful artists from the latter half of the 20th century got their start in Demokrato, which was based in Fukui Prefecture and promoted independent thinking. In 1955, Ay-Ō and Ikeda Masuo among others split from Demokrato and founded their own group called Jitzuzonsha (The Existentialists). During this time, Ikeda encouraged Ay-Ō to try printmaking, which he practiced going forward with the aid of silkscreen printers. Ay-Ō derived the Ō 嘔character of his name from Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel, “Nausea”.
Ay-Ō moved to New York in 1958, and in 1961 was introduced by Yoko Ono to George Maciunas, the founder of Fluxus. He became a member of the group in 1963 and roomed with Fluxus member Nam Jun Paik. He was known during this time for his “finger boxes”, boxes into which one put ones fingers to feel such things as sponges and bristle brushes, and performance art, called “Rainbow Happenings”, starting in 1964 at Carnegie Hall. He also created “atmospheric art” filling a room with tactile objects.
Over much of his subsequent career, Ay-Ō has been working with rainbow backgrounds in paintings and prints, and represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1966, where he displayed 65 “finger boxes, as well as the São Paulo Biennale in 1971. In 1970, he built the "Tactile Rainbow Room" at the Osaka World's Fair. In 1987 and 1988, Ay-Ō did his 17th “Rainbow Happenings” in Paris, Trocadero Garden, and followed with his 18th in Hiroshima, followed by doing six more between 1992 and 2011.
Ay-Ō included the entire rainbow spectrum in his works from red to violet, flattening objects from their three-dimensional forms and this escape from reality into the rainbow was for him a spiritual journey.
Hollis Goodall