TSUNEO MARUYAMA

Art Museum

Crabs

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Crabs

One day, Mr Shikanosuke Oka told me, ‘There is a young man in Shinshu who paints crabs…’. There are many painters who draw crabs in still life, so I could not understand what Oka-sensei was talking about. I was surprised when Maruyama-san’s work was exhibited at the Shunyo-kai Exhibition. It was a completely unprecedented work that was not swept away by shallow fads, but rather paved its own way, dismantling and reconstructing the crab in Maruyama’s interpretation. (Hajime Minamiohji, ‘Dedicated to Tsuneo Maruyama’, posthumous collection)

This work, which Tsuneo Maruyama exhibited at the 48th Yasui Prize Exhibition, uses a crab motif, which he began painting around 1963. The red snow crab, which is thought to be from the Sea of Japan, is beautiful and vivid in vermilion set on a bed of snow. The colours and brushwork are light and fresh. The other series of crab works, which he has been painting for nearly a decade, are also a pleasant symphony of colours. The artist’s eye penetrates the ‘life’ of human daily life and the ‘universe’ behind the boiled crabs. In this work in particular, the human inner life seems to be oozing out from the eyes of the crab peeping out from under the piles of crabs. (Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, 7 Oct. 1988, ‘Three crabs’, Tsuneo Maruyama, I)

As can be seen in work F100 (1966), this large movement and the perspective expressed in each crab leg honestly depicts the rigid and meticulous artist’s inner life (Yasuo Tanaka, ‘Painting over the spirit of the last minute’, Six Artists’ Posthumous Exhibition Collection).

I was immensely impressed when Mr Maruyama, a rigid and meticulous man, talked about how much he had suffered to reach that state of being after abandoning his past work. (Hajime Minamiohji, ‘Dedicated to Tsuneo Maruyama’, posthumous collection.)

When people think of Mr Maruyama, they think of crabs, and when people think of crabs, they think of Mr Maruyama. Crabs were such a good subject for Mr Maruyama’s paintings. It is no exaggeration to say that Mr Maruyama’s crabs were born again and discarded by his hand. The vermilion is beautiful in its own right, but it seems to me that the white colour favoured by Mr Oka Shikanosuke is deeply involved. (the owner of Dahitsu-kan, After viewing the exhibition of Tsuneo Maruyama’s posthumous works Part I )

This work, which evokes a mysterious fire, is very similar in composition to the enduring ‘ Seashore’. The intricately layered crabs are composed into a pyramid shape by mental manipulation, and the effect creates a strong contrast. (Yasuo Tanaka, ‘Tsuneo Maruyama,’ Nagano Prefecture Art Collection 7, The World of Western-style Painting Blossoming in the Region)

I recently viewed two oil paintings, often regarded as masterpieces, at a Gustav Klimt exhibition: Danaë and Judith II. Although the themes—Danaë and Judith—differ in their portrayal of women as symbols of eroticism and strength, I noticed that the conceptual approach (method, spirit, colour rendering in oils, etc.) bears similarities between the beginning and the end of this century. This observation led me to reflect on Mr. Maruyama’s approach. Personal taste varies, and I must admit, I was not particularly fond of Mr. Maruyama’s Rococo-style ostentation. It is said that Klimt’s art is shaped by Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) and Romanticism, and applying that lens to Maruyama’s work, I find myself now realising just how much he offered to contemporary art. His work seems to hold the key to unlocking the confusion and challenges in modern painting. (Toshimichi Kutsukake, Eulogy, Shunyō No. 52, 10 March 1986)