Keiko Moriuchi, 縷: 善の糸 Lu: The Never-Ending Thread I, 2025
Acrylic and 24k yellow gold leaf on canvas
33.3 x 24 x 3 cm
Condition: Very good
-
一日一善の糸を天（神）にささげる。
Dedicating the thread of one good deed each day to Heaven (the divine).
In Lu, Moriuchi paints horizontal threads that extend along the canvas. These lines are imagined as threads stretching infinitely into the cosmos, reaching toward remote prime-number coordinates, indivisible and infinite, representing the pure building blocks of the universe.
The title’s 善 (zen) suggests both “Eternity” and “Zen” (禅) and giving the work a spiritual dimension without tying it to any one faith. The threads form a bridge between human life and the infinite, turning the act of painting into a meditation on the unseen order of the cosmos.
-
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)