Takesada Matsutani is a Japanese painter, printmaker and installation artist. He is currently living and working between Japan and France. A member of the second generation of avant-garde Gutai artists, Takesada Matsutani is known for his iconic use of vinyl adhesive and graphite pencil, from bulbous sensual forms to monumental canvases of pencilled streams. With a career spanning over five decades with artworks exhibited in public institutions and major museums across Asia and Europe, Takesada Matsutani stands as, gracing the public with his avant-garde aesthetics and meditative works. 

Takesada Matsutani opted for Elmer’s glue, a versatile adhesive developed soon after the war, as his primary medium and developed his own style. By pouring the adhesive to a canvas, letting it partially dry to form a skin, and then inflating it with air blown through a straw, fans, or hairdryers, he allowed the liquid glue to produce its own peculiar forms directly on the surface of the canvas. The glossy and sticky texture of the adhesive, combined with its ability to form organic and sensual shapes, captivated attention as a new and unique possibility in the realm of painting. This artistic approach suggested previously unexplored possibilities.

Takesada Matsutani’s work is defined by a calculated balance that playfully calls into question form and function and by his experimentation with unexpected materials and techniques in the quest for original visual effects. From colorful three-dimensional bulbous paintings to black and white paper works and installations, his unconventional mixed-media artworks emerge naturally from the interaction of his chosen materials—vinyl glue, acrylic, and graphite—becoming, in the process, a stimulant for the eye and mind.