Work 65-D

Work 65-D belongs to Takesada Matsutani’s groundbreaking series that began in 1963. Manipulating household wood glue, a then newly available water-based vinyl adhesive, topped or mixed with acrylic and paint, he created textured, organic forms on canvas. The liquid, membranous surface contains puffed pockets that the artist inflated by blowing into a straw. In other areas, the bubbles were popped or slashed, and the canvas tilted in different directions to create lesions and wrinkles, taking advantage of the glue’s slow drying properties. The artist then filled the composition with tiny bumps of glue. The action-packed process, captured in the hardened surface, earned Matsutani critical acclaim and entry to the avant-garde group the Gutai Art Association (commonly known as Gutai), based outside of Osaka. This work is testament to the Gutai artists’ experimentation with performative actions and industrial materials, dovetailing with Japan’s industrial growth and reconstruction boom since the late 1950s. Work 65-D also evokes scars and wounds, as well as cellular forms in sexual reproduction, pointing to regeneration.