From the early 1960s until the 1970s Matsutani was a key member of the 'second generation' of the influential post war Japanese art collective, the Gutai Art Association. Over five decades Matsutani has developed a unique visual language of form and materials. As part of the Gutai group, Matsutani experimented with vinyl glue, using fans and his own breath to manipulate the substance, creating bulbous and sensuous forms reminiscent of human curves and features.
Read MoreIn 1966, Matsutani received a grant from the French government after winning first prize in the 1st Mainichi Art Competition and subsequently moved to Paris where he began working at Stanley William Hayter's renowned printmaking studio, Atelier 17. During the four years he worked at the studio, he learnt French, married and established his base in Paris. Working alongside Hayter opened Matsutani up to a new form of artistic experimentation and offered him a newfound confidence. Matsutani began to rethink his practice and a new elemental aesthetic language began to emerge that was both controlled and organic.
After the Gutai group disbanded in 1972, Matsutani eased into a radical yet consistent new body of work, informed by his experience at Atelier 17. Faithful to his Gutai roots, he strove to identify and convey the essential character of vinyl glue with graphite, that were to become his signature materials. Matsutani began creating vast expanses of metallic black graphite on mural-size sheets of paper built up with painstaking individual strokes. This ritualized manner presents a time-based record of his gestures, while reminiscent of his artistic beginnings in Japan, it has been translated into an artistic language that is uniquely his own.
Text courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Ocula Feature Exhibitions to See in Hong Kong By Tessa Moldan, Hong Kong As Hong Kong gradually reopens after lockdown, explore the exhibitions taking place this summer.
Related Press I Didn’t Go Home: Takesada Matsutani 1 February 2019, Mousse Magazine Hans Ulrich Obrist discusses influences, materials, and trajectories with Takesada Matsutani, a second-generation Gutai protagonist. Throughout his career, Matsutani has continuously developed his voice and discovered new potentials to express the inner subjective dimension. Spanning five decades, Matsutani's work continuously redefined the...
Related Press DROP IN TIME TAKESADA MATSUTANI 1 February 2019, ArtAsiaPacific It is easy to drive past the clutch of buildings that are Hauser & Wirth's rural outpost in Somerset. They are inconspicuous alongside similar farmsteads concealed in an agrarian landscape of steep inclines, only glimpsed through rare gaps in overwhelming hedgerows that enclose the road. The gallery's manicured buildings were previously barns...
Related Press Takesada Matsutani on Glue and Gutai 15 August 2018, Elephant Takesada Matsutani has been firmly implanted in France after decades of expatriation, and yet retains a distinctly Japanese sensibility to his experimental, gestural practice and exploration of unusual materials across evocative, fleshy paintings, drawings and sculptures. He came to France for a scholarship and he stayed for love, not art, he...
Related Press The grand old man of the Gutai group: an interview with Takesada Matsutani 30 July 2016, Apollo 'It's important to allow your early work to continue to influence you,' says Takesada Matsutani (b. 1937), pointing to the paintings, drawings, and writings on the floors, pillars, and walls of his crammed studio, a former cabinet-maker's atelier in Paris's 11th arrondissement. Every surface of the artist's studio is covered in papers, electric...
Related Video & Audio Takesada Matsutani: drop in time 13 September 2018, Hauser & Wirth In his Paris studio, Japanese-born artist Takesada Matsutani talks about how he came to join the Gutai Art Association in 1963, moved to Paris in 1966, and how vinyl adhesive glue and graphite have sustained a practice 'streaming into infinity'. Coming of age in postwar Japan, artist Takesada Matsutani found himself longing 'to make something...
Related Video & Audio Takesada Matsutani, Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, 1 Jul – 3 Sep 2017 17 August 2018, Hauser & Wirth Takesada Matsutani talks about his life and work on the occasion of his first Los Angeles solo exhibition on view at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles from 1 July through 3 September 201
