Tsuyoshi Maekawa
, Osaka, Japan
Tsuyoshi Maekawa's paintings are not to be interpreted as direct representations of something. They're without any reference other than the act of their creation. Maekawa's process includes randomly placing pieces of a jute rice bag onto a canvas, then cutting, sewing and folding the material. He pours whole cans of coloured enamel paint over it. He does this without having a preliminary concept in mind; the act of intuitively creating the work itself is more important than and determining for final result. The brightly coloured textures of the work make it dynamic and show the fighting spirit of the artist. The abstract images they create can be associated with the beauty of true nature, but the artist insists on the viewer making his own associations, which can be very different from the artist's personal view.
Maekawa's works are very tactile. One could say that the visual impression of his work is extracted from its tactility. The viewer sees his paintings the way he feels them. The sensitive interpretation of Maekawa's paintings does not stop at their surface, which only acts like a skin, hiding a much deeper and less straightforward level of interpretation.
About Tsuyoshi Maekawa
Maekawa joined the Gutai Art Association in 1962. In order to become a member of Gutai, an artist needed to be accepted by the group's co-founder and leader, Jiro Yoshihara, whose defining manifesto was "Do what no one has done before!" Maekawa had caught Yoshihara's attention in 1959 when he first exhibited at the 8th Gutai Exhibition at the Kyoto Municipas Museum of Art. About this first encounter, Maekawa recounts:
In 1959, then not being a formal member, I exhibited in the 8th Gutai Exhibition at Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, and I became a member of Gutai in 1962. Gutai usually didn't invite entries from non-members, but in that year, the association, like other 'koboten' (open exhibition) groups, allowed non-members to exhibit, probably because the site was spacious enough. I was advised to exhibit by Gutai member Shozo Shimamoto, an acquaintance of mine then. Everything started with the exhibition […] On the first day, I saw Jiro Yoshihara and his wife sitting in the inner part of the lobby, which made my heart pound; and I heard that Yoshihara wanted to see me, and I came to him to pay my respects. Yoshihara, who looked very happy, asked me about my work and other things […] I called Yoshihara to tell him that I'd like him to see my work. I soon arranged a truck to carry my work to his house […] Yoshihara, carefully watching each one, highly praised the pieces. I deeply appreciate his judgment […] Yoshihara said: 'For the next Gutai exhibition, leave all these pieces for Gutai members to see them.' When I visited him again on the day they were to select the entries for the exhibition, they had decided on my work for it, and Yoshihara asked me: 'What do you think of these? I'd take all of them to the exhibition place, Takashimaya Department.' I presented myself for every travelling exhibition of Gutai that year, and now I remember being ironically told by other members of Gutai exhibitions were like my solo exhibitions.
Maekawa remained part of Gutai until 1972, the year of Yoshihara's death, when the group subsequently dissolved.