Artwork Description

Title: Peach 7 of Kunlun Mountain
Artist: Keiko Moriuchi
Date: 2018
Medium: Mixed media on canvas
Dimensions: 35.8 x 28.6 in (91 x 72.7 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
Peach 7 of Kunlun Mountain is a luminous and visually compelling work by Keiko Moriuchi, executed in 2018. A constellation of radiant, textural floral forms emerges across a rich, honeycomb-textured black field. Rendered in bold impasto with vibrant pigments—crimson, jade, gold, and lapis—each blossom glows against the void-like background, resembling celestial objects. The dark surface is encased in a silver-white frame flecked with gilding and edged by a gold linear inner band, creating a sense of containment and elevation.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
In this piece, Moriuchi merges the Gutai movement’s embrace of material experimentation with an almost cosmic iconography. The recurring peach forms—associated with the mythological Mount Kunlun and Daoist immortality—are here transformed into radiant spheres, floating against a void reminiscent of ink-wash nightscapes or mandala diagrams. The black ground invites spiritual contemplation, while the tactile surfaces speak to her longstanding commitment to physical engagement with media. The composition suggests both order and expansion, echoing ritual, nature, and the cosmos.

3. Historical Context
Keiko Moriuchi’s artistic journey spans postwar Japan and the American art scene of the 1960s. After her early education at Osaka Shoin Women’s University and pivotal encounter with Gutai founder Jiro Yoshihara, she was encouraged to shift her focus from Paris to New York. There, she absorbed the minimalism and conceptual tendencies of the time. Peach 7 of Kunlun Mountain, part of a 2018 series, reflects this transnational formation. It unites Eastern symbolism with Western abstraction, embodying her distinctive visual synthesis.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The artwork is in very good condition. The canvas is structurally stable and taut, and the paint and mixed media surfaces show no signs of wear, flaking, or restoration. The gilding and impasto remain intact and vibrant. No conservation treatment has been undertaken or required.

6. Artistic Significance
Peach 7 of Kunlun Mountain represents the culmination of Moriuchi’s decades-long exploration of materiality, myth, and spiritual abstraction. With its bold contrasts and luminous relief, the work invokes both celestial wonder and meditative stillness. It stands as a sophisticated contribution to her celebrated Peach series, emphasizing the fruit as a symbol of regeneration, immortality, and cultural memory. Rich in both texture and meaning, the work offers collectors a deeply evocative piece from one of Japan’s most compelling postwar artists.