Tsuyoshi Maekawa, The Gutai Works

The word gutai means “concreteness” or “embodiment”. To speak about the Gutai group and art today, is to speak about what is concrete—that’s its essence. A painting does not have to represent a landscape or still life. It does not have to represent anything at all. Instead, it presents itself in all its pureness and materiality. Paint is paint. Found canvas is found canvas. It is what it is.

Following the true Gutai spirit, Maekawa places himself fully at the service of matter. Raw, gritty, tough, chosen from life, the weft and weave of burlap are his medium of choice. As anyone who has ever draped a piece of material knows, the way a piece of fabric falls or folds in a certain disposition is difficult to predict. It demands an active, first-hand involvement. The way it stretches and pleats, carries the authenticity of presence. These works cannot possibly be reproduced. As such, Maekawa’s works stand out from the time in which they evolve. They’re unique and specific.

With Maekawa, the artist uses his hands, mind and eyes combined to actively confront the material. The traces expressed in the coarse fabric—whether it’s been mounted on canvas, squared, ripped, folded, creased, painted over, tied together or glued—are dependent on the various decisions the artist makes when he is caught in the midst of creative flow.

The result of that process is what viewers are privileged to experience when examining the work. Every splash or fold was the result of an active decision. The brute force of the momentum it expresses draws the viewer in, and taps into the multiplicity of options the work proposes. Maekawa’s art travels down many roads. It’s an art of possibility.

His work shows us common materials, as we have never seen them before. A multitude of wrinkles swept round in curved formation evokes patterns that seem familiar. Perhaps it’s their playfulness we recognize. Or perhaps the gentle interplay of light and dark echoes rhythms that remind us of the patterning of an animal hide or the plan of some primeval city structure. The artist never intended these associations, but the work strikes a chord with countless archetypal residues that sit in our collective unconscious. Maekawa’s work tells us about our place in the world. It does so, not through images or representations, but via the material, which stands for itself.