In the exhibition space #2, Maekawa’s challenges performed after the dissolution of “The Gutai Art Association” are introduced.
Before explaining his challenges, we introduce his career as a designer. Because his experiences as a designer are applied for the style of artworks newly created by Maekawa.
He saw the end of war at the age of nine. In 1956, when it was said as ‘no longer be termed postwar’, he became twenty. He spent his boyhood at sensitive age in unquiet days of postwar period. In those days, as Japan was under the Allies and American culture flowed in widely, it was not hard to anticipate that young people of the day accepted it as the symbol of the new era. Maekawa, too, felt freshness toward artworks such as a logo design of “Lucky Strike” cigarettes created by Raymond Loewy (1893-1986) *₁ and yearned to become a designer. From 1952, he attended “Osaka City Kogei High School” which provided an education based on the principle of the “Bauhaus”, the world’s first educational institution for design, and some of graduates of that school include Yoshio Hayakawa (1917- 2009) *₂ who led the postwar world of design in Japan and so on. Maekawa studied graphic design in the design course and graduated from that school in 1955. After that he started to work at a major consumer electronics manufacturer as a graphic designer. As it was the period of high-speed economic growth, he was fulfilled at work. However, because of a lot of overtime, he could not find time to create his artworks and then he moved to the advertising department of Daiei Film, a movie studio, and handled film posters and newspaper advertisement. In those days, he received “Dentsu Advertising Grand Award” recognizing great advertisement planning and art of advertisement representation and others. After he joined Gutai in 1962, he established a design office by himself in 1966 and continued to act as an artist while working as a designer.
In 1972, Gutai dissolved due to the death of Jiro Yoshihara, the leader of group. At that time, Maekawa, at the age of thirty-six, looked back on his painting activities and thought that “I would start again to make artworks only with fabrics” That was the trial of how much he could express his works with less paints and colors.
In 1975, Maekawa closed his design office and created an environment that he could concentrate on his painting activities by opening a drawing class for children at home and so on. From around 1978, he started to use a material, “Hemp cloth” different from Burlap. Hemp, made of fiber picked from stalks, is soft and commonly used for clothes in general due to natural feeling of material.
Maekawa thought to create paintings only with cloths and then made simple figures such as trapezoid, diamond and so on by sewing hemp cloths together different in texture and color. “Inlaying”, the technique that one material is mounted on a different material, is seen in metals and ceramics, however, it is unusual for hemp cloths. An appearance of figures created by combined hemp cloths looks like that pluralistic spaces come out in a painting by different horizons connecting each other.
In addition, Maekawa made many diagonal fine lines by sewing pin-tucks in fabric with these figures. There, lines stand out as objects, which are different from ones drawn by paintbrush. Shadows appeared on folds also become a part of lines and the material lines are developed into the next dimension mingling with plurality of a scene. However, Maekawa completed this complex structure in a simple composition that a single figure is placed in the center of a picture, which never makes the painting complicated. Here, Maekawa’s sense of balance, developed through his long career as a designer, has been reflected.
It can be said that the formative design of space multiplexing by this material (cloth) has exceeded the domain of conventional painting. Because Maekawa’s artworks are, of course not sculptures and crafts, totally new expression which has never seen in the previous pictorial expression. An unprecedented thing cannot be measured by current framework. There, the spirits of Gutai, such as “Never imitate others” or “Do what no one has done before.” are carried out.
From 1980 to 1990’s, Maekawa continued to create several patterns of similar artworks by changing shapes of figures, and width and number of folds. These artworks, completed after scraping off dynamic decorations and accumulating detailed works in millimeters as if he traced his mind, give off a kind of soft tranquility and lead viewers to self-reflection.
For this painting style, Maekawa received Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Award at “15th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan” in 1981, National Museum of Modern Art, Osaka Award at “4th Japan Emba Prize Exhibition”, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto Award at “14th Japan International Art Exhibition”, and Grand prize at “5th Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese Painting” in 1982.
It can be said that if Gutai era, when Maekawa spent his life with members of great originality under the guidance of his instructor, Yoshihara, is adolescent period, the era when he explored himself in detail following Yoshihara’s spirit after his death and cleared his new path by himself is adulthood period as an artist and which was the important time for him as an artist, while at the same time, to establish a firm foundation socially.
*1 Raymond Loewy (from 1893 to 1986)
A leading industrial designer of the 20th century renowned for “Never Leave Well Enough Alone”. Born in France and operated mainly in the United State. The cigarette “Lucky Strike” had trademark on both sides of the package, which makes it available to be aware of the product with either side facing up, and this design was so revolutionary that the merchandize was recognized at a glance even it was thrown away on a street.
*2 Yoshio Hayakawa (from 1917 to 2009)
A leading graphic designer in postwar Japan. Born in Osaka. Graduated from a design course of Osaka City Kogei High School in 1936. He worked at Mitsukoshi department store in 1952, through the advertising section of Kintetsu department store and became self-employed. Received Shiju-hosho (the Medal with Purple Ribbon) in 1982. Received Kunyonto Kyokujitsusho (the order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, Fourth Class) in 1988. Became highly regarded worldwide for the posters of “Caron Dressmaking School” and Kintetsu Department Store “Shusaikai”, the design of a cake shop “G-sen” in Kobe and so on.
*3 From 1950s to the early 1960s, movies were great entertainment for ordinary people. In 1958, the box office sale was 72.4 billion yen and cinema attendance reached a peak at 1.12745 billion yen. After that, the attendance started to decrease along with the popularization of television. (researched by Japan Motion Picture Union (reorganized into Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan in 1957) One of the movies, produced and distributed by Daiei film company, is “Rashomon” directed by Akira Kurosawa, which won The Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Image: Work (No.151026), 1982, 130.3×162.1cm, Hemp cloth, sew, acrylic
TSUYOSHI MAEKAWA: “Dongoros”is animated by Maekawa.Maekawa expresses through the pure abstraction of colors, forms, and materials showing as they really are.
Period: February 8(sat)-June 28(sun), 2020.
July 4th (Sat)~ The extended session is now ongoing.
○ Further information about the exhibition
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