Year: 1991
Medium: acrylic on cotton
Dimensions: 100 x 80.5 cm (39 3/8 x 31 3/4 in.)
Acquired from SBI Art Auction, 2022
While Maruyama is now known for his softly stained landscape works, from his school days in the 1980s to the early 1990s, he created abstract works with organic shapes and colors that have been described as resembling cells. This work was created in 1991, right after Maruyama finished B Seminar (B-Semi). Before B-Semi, Maruyama studied at a fashion-related vocational school and began painting on scrap fabric instead of traditional canvas. In this work, thin cotton fabric is also used to stretch over the frame. The bright yellowish-brown with a hint of whiteness layer is drawn over the base, giving the entire painting a slightly bright yellowish glow. This paleness can be imagined to be inherited the same sensitivity from Maruyama’s unique staining technique in which colors are deeply soaked and merged into the fabric. Within the yellowish-brown of the painting, numerous oval shapes appear to emerge through the strong line depictions. A closer look reveals that these lines were created by scraping off the top layer of paint. Each line is carved out from the base color in orange to the gentle gradation in white. Even today, relatively clearer lines are used to represent water ripples or tree branches. However, Maruyama’s lines do not indicate the object or the object’s boundary and outline but the image itself. It would be interesting to imagine the process of how Maruyama’s sharp lines in the past transformed into more fluid and immersive expressions as seen in this work.
