Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Riverwalk Gallery

A 1958 oil painting by Saburo Murakami

The Gutai group, an influential Kansai-area abstract art movement from the 1950s-70s, attracted considerable attention outside Japan, but never really got much respect at home. Will an ambitious retrospective exhibition now on at the National Art Center in Tokyo, called Gutai: The Spirit of an Era, change that? The museum’s head researcher and expert on the group, Shoichi Hirai, is wondering just that.

“At the beginning of their activities, the Gutai had several exhibitions in Tokyo, but they were always met cold-heartedly,” said Mr. Hirai by e-mail. “Many of these people criticized the Gutai’s work as having no meaning, no theme, or as simply being a form of play or amusement.”

The exhibition consists of about 150 works, from installations with a distinctively industrial character, to those themed around household goods — some of which seem like whimsical afternoon projects — and later works characterized by bold, expressionistic, almost psychedelic painting. Gutai means “embodiment,” and the group’s motto was “don’t copy.” Their goal was to create something new by tearing down old ideas.