- 1045
Maekawa Tsuyoshi
Estimate
1,600,000 - 2,600,000 HKD
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Description
- Maekawa Tsuyoshi
- Work
- oil and burlap on canvas mounted on board
signed in Japanese and English, titled in Japanese and dated 1963 on the reverse, framed
Provenance
Dominique Lévy Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Japan, Osaka, Municipal Museum of Art, Kansai Sogo Bijyutsu Ten, 1963
Japan, Osaka, Gutai Pinacotheca, Maekawa First Solo Exhibition, November 1963
Japan, Wakayama, The Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Design - Soil, Fabric, Thread: Araki Takao, Maekawa Tsuyoshi, Hamatani Akio, 1989
Japan, Osaka, Gutai Pinacotheca, Maekawa First Solo Exhibition, November 1963
Japan, Wakayama, The Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Design - Soil, Fabric, Thread: Araki Takao, Maekawa Tsuyoshi, Hamatani Akio, 1989
Literature
Maekawa, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium, 2014, pp. 24, 41, 42 (exhibition installation view)
Tsuyoshi Maekawa: Energy Extortionist, Whitestone Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2015, p. 43 (exhibition installation view)
Tsuyoshi Maekawa: Energy Extortionist, Whitestone Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2015, p. 43 (exhibition installation view)
Condition
This work is generally in good condition with minor wear in handling around the edges. There are fine craquelures throughout, most prominently concentrated along the lower edges and lower center. One horizontal craquelure measures approximately 20 cm. When examined under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The Scream of Burlap
Maekawa Tsuoshi
Every human being is born and given life for the purpose of putting their own stamp on the world, and on history. Every artist, I believe, must by nature be a pioneer. – Maekawa Tsuyoshi
Maekawa Tsuyoshi is a second-generation Gutai artist who quickly became one of Yoshihara Jiro’s favorites among the younger members of the group. In 1959, even before he officially joined as a Gutai member, Maekawa exhibited at the 8th Gutai exhibition at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. In Maekawa’s own words, “[e]verything started with the exhibition” as Yoshihara was deeply impressed by Maekawa’s works. The monumentally powerful Work (Lot 1045), with its slashing teeth-like arcs, swelling tidal lines and grooves and vivid blue and brown hues, hails from the artist’s brilliant early Gutai years and was exhibited in the Maekawa’s first solo exhibition at the Pinocotheca in November 1963.
The most distinctive feature of Maekawa’s work is his use of woven burlap (coarse jute bags), a stylistic and conceptual emphasis on materiality that predates the rise of Informel in Japan. Maekawa’s unique approach involves him weaving and gluing spiral-shaped pleats that jut out, at once organically and architecturally, creating curving pockets and lines reminiscent of the patterns in ancient Jomon earthenware. Combined with the coarse texture of the burlap material, the resulting effect exudes a raw, primitive sense of power along with a paradoxical luxurious sense of graceful regality. Positioned at the liminal spaces between abstraction and figuration, painting and sculpture, Maekawa’s paintings contain traces of nature such as branches, leaves and water currents, as well as cultural iconographic signs like crosses, columns and grids. Yuling Wang writes: “If we imagine looking at the works from a birds-eye view, the burlap bumps resemble topographical lines, all kinds of fields, [or] the Nazca Lines, or fingerprints”.1
Color also plays an important role in Maekawa’s oeuvre. The myriad of rich earthy hues are often delivered by staining, dripping or splashing in a physical, Pollock-esque method, resulting in poured color fields that allow the pigment to flow, expand and swell organically into the spaces between the bumps and crevices. With Maekawa, however, color never overpowers the background texture or skeletal structure of the lines, but rather complements and emphasizes the versatile and visceral materiality of burlap. Such a trust in the inherent power, beauty and tenacity of material fully allows nature’s inherent rhythms to pulse through, conveying a sense of timeless dynamic vitality. Striking and seductive, yet verging on the grotesque, Maekawa’s writhing extortionist aesthetic offers not easy soft harmony but the terrible beauty of matter itself, an ode to the true legendary Gutai spirit in post-war Japanese art.
1 Yuling Wang, “The Paintings of Tsuyoshi Maekawa: Gutai and Beyond”, in exh. cat. Tsuyoshi Maekawa: Energy Extortionist, Whitestone Gallery, 2015, p. 8
Maekawa Tsuoshi
Every human being is born and given life for the purpose of putting their own stamp on the world, and on history. Every artist, I believe, must by nature be a pioneer. – Maekawa Tsuyoshi
Maekawa Tsuyoshi is a second-generation Gutai artist who quickly became one of Yoshihara Jiro’s favorites among the younger members of the group. In 1959, even before he officially joined as a Gutai member, Maekawa exhibited at the 8th Gutai exhibition at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. In Maekawa’s own words, “[e]verything started with the exhibition” as Yoshihara was deeply impressed by Maekawa’s works. The monumentally powerful Work (Lot 1045), with its slashing teeth-like arcs, swelling tidal lines and grooves and vivid blue and brown hues, hails from the artist’s brilliant early Gutai years and was exhibited in the Maekawa’s first solo exhibition at the Pinocotheca in November 1963.
The most distinctive feature of Maekawa’s work is his use of woven burlap (coarse jute bags), a stylistic and conceptual emphasis on materiality that predates the rise of Informel in Japan. Maekawa’s unique approach involves him weaving and gluing spiral-shaped pleats that jut out, at once organically and architecturally, creating curving pockets and lines reminiscent of the patterns in ancient Jomon earthenware. Combined with the coarse texture of the burlap material, the resulting effect exudes a raw, primitive sense of power along with a paradoxical luxurious sense of graceful regality. Positioned at the liminal spaces between abstraction and figuration, painting and sculpture, Maekawa’s paintings contain traces of nature such as branches, leaves and water currents, as well as cultural iconographic signs like crosses, columns and grids. Yuling Wang writes: “If we imagine looking at the works from a birds-eye view, the burlap bumps resemble topographical lines, all kinds of fields, [or] the Nazca Lines, or fingerprints”.1
Color also plays an important role in Maekawa’s oeuvre. The myriad of rich earthy hues are often delivered by staining, dripping or splashing in a physical, Pollock-esque method, resulting in poured color fields that allow the pigment to flow, expand and swell organically into the spaces between the bumps and crevices. With Maekawa, however, color never overpowers the background texture or skeletal structure of the lines, but rather complements and emphasizes the versatile and visceral materiality of burlap. Such a trust in the inherent power, beauty and tenacity of material fully allows nature’s inherent rhythms to pulse through, conveying a sense of timeless dynamic vitality. Striking and seductive, yet verging on the grotesque, Maekawa’s writhing extortionist aesthetic offers not easy soft harmony but the terrible beauty of matter itself, an ode to the true legendary Gutai spirit in post-war Japanese art.
1 Yuling Wang, “The Paintings of Tsuyoshi Maekawa: Gutai and Beyond”, in exh. cat. Tsuyoshi Maekawa: Energy Extortionist, Whitestone Gallery, 2015, p. 8