慶應義塾大学アート・センター　Keio University Art Center

Blotting paper is something. It remains by itself. It is this now. I will keep it. Shuzo Takiguchi, 1960.
This sentence appears in the following two handmade brochure by Shuzo Takiguchi: Lost Diary of Mathias Grünewald or Painter’s Handbook (1960) and Blotting Paper Is Something, Et Cetera… (1961–62).

Around 1960, the poet and art critic Shuzo Takiguchi began making what are commonly referred to as “handmade brochures.” Produced entirely by Takiguchi himself, without going through the processes of a publisher or printing house, these brochures consist of assemblages of fragments—drawings, magazine clippings, copies of printed matter, silver foil, labels and stickers, handwritten notes, and other materials. They are books that appear at once finished and unfinished.

This exhibition focuses on two of Takiguchi’s handmade brochures incorporating blotting paper—Lost Diary of Mathias Grünewald or Painter’s Handbook and Blotting Paper Is Something, Et Cetera…—as well as The Ghost of Mathias Grünewald, a series of twenty works made using decalcomania (transfer printing), first presented in the exhibition My Heart Ticks Away at Minami Gallery in 1962.

Blotting paper is used to absorb excess moisture from paint or ink; in watercolor painting, for example, it can be used to control bleeding and adjust the intensity of color. Decalcomania is a transfer technique developed in the eighteenth century. Paint or another medium is spread across a surface and, while still wet, covered with paper or another material; when the covering material is removed, a pattern is transferred onto it. The Surrealists employed this technique as a means of generating chance images. Both blotting paper and decalcomania produce something copied or transferred—an “影” (shadow) or “分身” (double). This group of works offers a point of departure for considering Takiguchi’s concept of the “影像 Eizō” (shadow-image).

Since 2023, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Shuzo Takiguchi’s birth, the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design and the Keio University Art Center—two institutions that share custody of materials formerly belonging to Takiguchi—have jointly organized exhibitions as part of the museum’s collection exhibitions. This exhibition is the fourth in the series.
Previous jointly organized exhibitions were: Shuzo Takiguchi: 120th Anniversary of His Birth—The “Book” as a Wilson-Lincoln System (November 2, 2023–February 6, 2024); Letters and Drifting Poems (November 7, 2024–February 11, 2025); and Shuzo Takiguchi and Joan Miró: Two Artist’s Books and Correspondence (October 9, 2025–January 12, 2026).

* The variation between “Mathias Grünewald” and “Matthias Grünewald” reflects changes in Takiguchi’s own Japanese rendering of the name and follows the wording of the respective original sources.