The Gutai group, an influential Kansai-area abstract art movement from the 1950s-70s got 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...