2014 Catalogue Archive

In 1965, Japanese artist Yutaka Matsuda began creating what he called mūbu āto (moving art), and within a year he started to incorporate motors that could produce repetitive, automatic movements within the work. In this work from 1996, Matsuda’s characteristic geometric forms dance, tip, and roll across the canvas in an animated fashion. Each shape contains a small opening, reminiscent of the peepholes that first appeared in his mid-60s reliefs. Typical of Matsuda’s work, a sensitive and lifelike scene is conjured through the simplest of means. In 1967, Yutaka Matsuda became one of the last members to join the Gutai group, and he exhibited with the group in 17th Gutai Art Exhibition and From Space to Environment in 1966, and the 4th International Young Artists Exhibition in 1967. His work was included in Gutai I, II, III, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History; The 50th Anniversary of Gutai Retrospective Exhibition, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe; and Gutai: The Spirit of an Era, The National Art Center, Tokyo.