Oil and cords on canvas

72.5 x 60.5 cm.28 1/2 x 23 5/6 in.

Signed in English and dated on bottom right, stretcher and reverse
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

Sharp as Flash, Soft as Rain
Born in Osaka in 1936, Tsuyoshi Maekawa is the representative figure from Gutai's second generation. He joined in 1962 the Gutai Art Association, where he was an young active member. Breaking free from the conventional brushwork, he cuts and rips materials like burlap into pieces and sews them back together into eccentric concoctions, spicing up the Gutai movement and its ontological exploration. His works are held in collections at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts and Tate Modern in London.

A Man Who Makes Colors Dance
Artwork, completed in 1991, was primed with a base coat of red paint. The two upturned undulating creases, fixed deliberately on the canvas, resemble lightning strikes with their three-dimensional shapes and the color gradient from neon blue to yellow to red, offering exceptional visual appeal. The fine ridges, as they extend upward from the bottom, gradually pick up an intriguing glow. For this piece, Maekawa followed his usual practice of dripping or splashing the paint in a paper cup onto the surface randomly. In line with the spirit of process art, this technique underscores the vintage topographical patterns and captures the spontaneous flow of paint, preserving the creative work that took place behind the scenes.

Price estimate:
HKD: 120,000 – 220,000
USD: 15,300 – 28,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 141,600