Matsutani builds a world where material pressure becomes spatial condition, using vinyl glue and graphite to register expansion, tension, and containment across surface and volume.
Matsutani builds a world where material pressure becomes spatial condition, using vinyl glue and graphite to register expansion, tension, and containment across surface and volume.
Viscous material is traditionally regarded as malleable; in Takesada Matsutani’s work, it functions structurally to shape surface through expansion and gravity. Form swells, surface stretches, and structure records process across the canvas.
Material, pressure, and layering interact to form the final topography.
















1. Artist in studio. © Takesada Matsutani.
2. Takesada Matsutani with his works at the 14th Gutai Art Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka, 1964. © Takesada Matsutani.
3. Drawing creation scene, San Francisco, 1982. Takesada Matsutani pouring volatile oil during the installation of the drawing Flow-7. © Takesada Matsutani Archives.
4. Takesada Matsutani finishing graphite with solvent on ten meters of paper at Artistes de Paris, Bateau-Lavoir, Paris, 1984. © Takesada Matsutani.
5. Installation view, Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong. © Takesada Matsutani. Photograph by Kitmin Lee. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
6. Installation view, Takesada Matsutani, Hauser & Wirth Paris, 2024. © Takesada Matsutani. Photograph by Nicolas Brasseur.
7. Artist in studio. © Takesada Matsutani.
8. Installation view: Takesada Matsutani, A Matrix, solo exhibition, Hauser & Wirth, London, 2013. Organised in collaboration with Olivier Renaud-Clement. Photograph by Alex Delfanne.
9. Installation view: Combine, solo exhibition, Hauser & Wirth, New York, 22nd Street, 2022. Organised in collaboration with Olivier Renaud-Clement. Photograph by Thomas Barratt.
10. Takesada Matsutani in his studio, Paris, 27 January 2019. Photograph by Michel Lunardelli.
11. Installation view: Takesada Matsutani, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 3 October – 17 December 2024.
12. Takesada Matsutani performance at Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, 2017. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Mario de Lopez.
13. Takesada Matsutani, Cercle, 98-9-1, 1998. 69.5 × 51.5 cm. © Takesada Matsutani.
14. Takesada Matsutani, Stream-87-P, 1987. © Takesada Matsutani. Photograph by Patrick Rimond.
15. Takesada Matsutani in his studio, Paris, 2019. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Michel Lunardelli.
16. Installation view, 57th International Art Exhibition – Viva Arte Viva, curated by Christine Macel, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2017. © Takesada Matsutani. Photograph by David Levene.
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