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Lot Essay
Takesada Matsutani's true identity might be considered that of an explorer, one who continually challenged painting's forms and mediums. Matsutani's Work 65-W (Lot 75) testifies to his experimental processes during the '60s, when he drew inspiration from samples of blood enlarged under the microscope that lent a highly organic feel to his work. Matsutani invented a unique method of responding to the essential properties of his materials: exhaling through a drinking straw into thick layers of semi-congealed pigments, they absorbed his breath in pockets and he let them expand or collapse as they would, thereby directly linking their physical nature with his inner essence. Viewers could feel the supple toughness of the membrane-like structures that formed, as they similarly do in the genre of soft sculpture.
Viewers can sense the intimate connection between the artist and his materials, and the interaction and response between the two. Physical materials are on the one hand carriers of the artist's deep, intuitive perceptions, and Matsutani at the same time presents his materials in their most authentic forms, refusing to forcibly distort them or force them to conform to his own intent. This attitude precisely reflects a statement found in the Gutai Art Association Manifesto, that if one leaves the material to show its own character, presenting it just as it is, then it starts to tell us something, and will speak with a mighty voice.
In its sensitive understanding of materials, Matsutani's work recalls the Italian avant-garde abstract expressionist artist Alberto Burri. Both explored the limitations and the possibilities of their chosen materials, elevating them through non-traditional treatments to new spheres of perception (Fig. 1). Burri's chosen materials included burlap and plastic resins, which he melted or singed with fire until they reformed in new shapes or even burned completely through. By so doing he articulated their essential material being and the transformations of their textures. Burri's creative process was a thoughtful and introspective one - its essentially uncontrollable nature producing surprises both for the artist and for viewers.
When it comes to the articulation of space in a painting, the name Lucio Fontana cannot go unmentioned. In his well-known series of slashed canvases (Fig. 2), Fontana abandoned the painting brush and instead used sharp knives to cut open canvases to which a coating of base colour had been applied. The open slash marks revealed the wall behind the canvas and created black voids within the canvas itself, and no one since has created more authentic expressions of space and light. This kind of innovative, free interpretation, like Matsutani's, sought to break through restrictive concepts of painting and open up new imaginative spaces in the region between two- and three-dimensional creations.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE
Matsutani-painter, sculptor, and print-maker-moved to Paris later in his life. Future (Lot 74), dating from the early '70s, has a print-like feel; at first glance it seems completely monochromatic, yet contains very fine gradations of hue that continually pull the viewer deeper inside as they explore its spaces. Future emphasizes basic modeling and a concentrated use of limited colour in a manner similar to the school of Suprematism. The founder of that school, Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, propounded on the importance of pure feeling during the creative process, and his works include some in which red or black squares are placed on white backgrounds, exhibiting a concise beauty that follows the artist's subjective inclinations (Fig. 3).
The intermixing of form and empty space in Future also recalls a famous double image (Fig. 4) from the field of psychology. The energies contained in colour can either advance or recede, and in Future, Matsutani's artful choice of red and black juxtaposes an advancing and a receding colour at respective sides of the painting, adding great tension to his two-dimensional composition. The absolute flatness of the colours, along with their sharply defined boundaries, also evokes the American Hard-edge painters of the 1960s.
THE 1980S-ACHROMATIC CREATIONS
Traditionally, the sketch has been a tool for purposes of narration, documentation, or reproduction. But Matsutani reinterpreted the sketch to discover even further possibilities.
The nature of light, and its reflection and absorption, means that white, grey, and black vary only in brightness, but have no hue (chroma). They are therefore called 'achromatic.' Paintings employing these tones often become a kind of pure meditation reflecting the artist's state of mind. In this way, Matsutani's Linear Black No.1 (Lot 76) is the presentation of a distinct mental state. The silent world within this work is built up from accretions of lead pencil strokes, and appears at first sight like a blank monochrome film with no images. Its soundlessness is further augmented by its silver-grey pencil lines, devoutly and continually extended until they become lustrous, textured shapes. Linear Black No.1, subtly shifting between every gradation of grey, calls out, asking viewers to inject their own feeling into the work, yet they remain fixed in the emptiness of its manifold shadings of grey and black .
Viewers can sense the intimate connection between the artist and his materials, and the interaction and response between the two. Physical materials are on the one hand carriers of the artist's deep, intuitive perceptions, and Matsutani at the same time presents his materials in their most authentic forms, refusing to forcibly distort them or force them to conform to his own intent. This attitude precisely reflects a statement found in the Gutai Art Association Manifesto, that if one leaves the material to show its own character, presenting it just as it is, then it starts to tell us something, and will speak with a mighty voice.
In its sensitive understanding of materials, Matsutani's work recalls the Italian avant-garde abstract expressionist artist Alberto Burri. Both explored the limitations and the possibilities of their chosen materials, elevating them through non-traditional treatments to new spheres of perception (Fig. 1). Burri's chosen materials included burlap and plastic resins, which he melted or singed with fire until they reformed in new shapes or even burned completely through. By so doing he articulated their essential material being and the transformations of their textures. Burri's creative process was a thoughtful and introspective one - its essentially uncontrollable nature producing surprises both for the artist and for viewers.
When it comes to the articulation of space in a painting, the name Lucio Fontana cannot go unmentioned. In his well-known series of slashed canvases (Fig. 2), Fontana abandoned the painting brush and instead used sharp knives to cut open canvases to which a coating of base colour had been applied. The open slash marks revealed the wall behind the canvas and created black voids within the canvas itself, and no one since has created more authentic expressions of space and light. This kind of innovative, free interpretation, like Matsutani's, sought to break through restrictive concepts of painting and open up new imaginative spaces in the region between two- and three-dimensional creations.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE
Matsutani-painter, sculptor, and print-maker-moved to Paris later in his life. Future (Lot 74), dating from the early '70s, has a print-like feel; at first glance it seems completely monochromatic, yet contains very fine gradations of hue that continually pull the viewer deeper inside as they explore its spaces. Future emphasizes basic modeling and a concentrated use of limited colour in a manner similar to the school of Suprematism. The founder of that school, Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, propounded on the importance of pure feeling during the creative process, and his works include some in which red or black squares are placed on white backgrounds, exhibiting a concise beauty that follows the artist's subjective inclinations (Fig. 3).
The intermixing of form and empty space in Future also recalls a famous double image (Fig. 4) from the field of psychology. The energies contained in colour can either advance or recede, and in Future, Matsutani's artful choice of red and black juxtaposes an advancing and a receding colour at respective sides of the painting, adding great tension to his two-dimensional composition. The absolute flatness of the colours, along with their sharply defined boundaries, also evokes the American Hard-edge painters of the 1960s.
THE 1980S-ACHROMATIC CREATIONS
Traditionally, the sketch has been a tool for purposes of narration, documentation, or reproduction. But Matsutani reinterpreted the sketch to discover even further possibilities.
The nature of light, and its reflection and absorption, means that white, grey, and black vary only in brightness, but have no hue (chroma). They are therefore called 'achromatic.' Paintings employing these tones often become a kind of pure meditation reflecting the artist's state of mind. In this way, Matsutani's Linear Black No.1 (Lot 76) is the presentation of a distinct mental state. The silent world within this work is built up from accretions of lead pencil strokes, and appears at first sight like a blank monochrome film with no images. Its soundlessness is further augmented by its silver-grey pencil lines, devoutly and continually extended until they become lustrous, textured shapes. Linear Black No.1, subtly shifting between every gradation of grey, calls out, asking viewers to inject their own feeling into the work, yet they remain fixed in the emptiness of its manifold shadings of grey and black .