Jōsaku Maeda

Jōsaku Maeda (前田常作, Maeda Jōsaku, 14 July 1926 – 13 October 2007) was a Japanese painter and printmaker known for abstract paintings based on Buddhist mandala structures.

Early life and career Drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945, Maeda witnessed the Toyama air raid, an experience he later described as shaping his meditation on life and death. He associated with avant-garde artists including Tatsuo Ikeda and On Kawara at the Seisakusha Kondankai. His first solo exhibition was held at Takemiya Gallery in 1955 on the recommendation of Shūzō Takiguchi. He subsequently studied esoteric Buddhist iconography at the Musée Guimet. His 1962 painting Ningen Seiza (Constellation Humaine) was created during this period. His 1959 painting Garden of Earthly Delights (Kairaku no sono), held by the Takamatsu City Museum of Art, was noted in the same catalogue for its "humanoid form in innumerable repetitions... swirling toward a central void", a treatment compared to the contemporary work of Yayoi Kusama. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York