Keiko Moriuchi, 龍の泉 The Dragon's Spring, 2025
Acrylic and 24k yellow gold leaf on canvas
22.7 x 15.8 x 3 cm
Condition: Very good
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吉祥の泉。
An auspicious spring.
龍が天に舞い上がる、水のある場所。
The place with water from which the dragon ascends into Heaven.
This work draws from a Chinese legend of a deep limestone cave said to house a dragon’s nest. According to the story, the world will not know peace until the dragon emerges from its hidden spring. Moriuchi depicts this mythic source as a place filled with unseen energy, waiting to surface. The painting becomes an image of suspense and potential, where water, cave, and dragon together suggest the hidden power beneath the surface of the world, shaping human destiny.
Inscription on the verso:
龍の泉
The Dragon’s Spring
〈垓の目〉
The Eye of Gai
垓とは、王の目のこと
Gai refers to the “King’s Eye.”
垓は、億、兆、京の次が、垓
Gai is the numerical unit following oku (hundred million), chō (trillion), and kei (quadrillion).
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Keiko Moriuchi 森内敬子 (Japanese, b.1943) is an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only was she the final member to join the Gutai Art Association, but she was also the only member to be invited to join by Jiro Yoshihara (Japanese, 1905-1972), the collective’s founder.
Moriuchi creates paintings with stunning textures, underscored with deep spirituality. Spirituality radiates off Moriuchi’s canvases, as her compositions harken to sacred geometries and mythological symbols. Her works are almost akin to sculptural terrains, putting on layer after layer of Liquitex paint that accumulates on the canvas, which are then delicately gilded with gold. This signature use of gold leaf is not merely an aesthetic choice — as Moriuchi believes that gold has healing and purifying properties, and activates the divine energy points of the heart and mind. The heft of these surfaces embody the vigor with which Moriuchi uses to create these immensely tactile pieces, and even further, mirroring the intensity of artistic gestures of her Gutai peers.
(Photographed in October 2025)