A maelstrom of centripetal energy, 'T32' (1962) is a painting that is at once fierce and poetic, anarchic and deeply centered. An exceptional work, it is exemplary of Shiraga’s Gutai period, which was informed both by the memory of wartime violence and the command of Gutai leader Jiro Yoshihara to “create what has never been done before!" 'T32' was completed in Shiraga's characteristic style, developed by the artist in 1954: to pour paint onto the middle of the canvas and spread it with his feet in energetic dance-like movements while hanging from a rope. Using a limited palette on a white background, 'T32' is focused on pure movement. With the knowledge that it was painted with Shiraga’s feet, the eye follows the painting’s embodied gestures, as one would the traces of a calligrapher’s brush. As Shiraga described it in Gutai journal no. 2: "I want to paint as though rushing around a battlefield, exerting myself to collapse from exhaustion." 'T32' features Shiraga’s favorite pigment, a vivid shade of red which the artist thought was reminiscent of blood, called Crimson Lake.
'T32' was made shortly after Shiraga’s first ever solo exhibition in Paris at Galerie Stadler, and was sent to Rodolphe Stadler after its completion. Stadler had been introduced to Shiraga’s work in November 1959, when he included a painting by the artist in the group show 'Métamorphismes.' The two would continue to work together until the gallery closed in 1992. During this time, as his work was beginning to gain an international audience not only in Paris, but also in Turin, Italy, and New York, Shiraga often enlarged his canvases and gave them traditional Japanese names at the advice of critic Michel Tapié. However, in 'T32,' Shiraga held stedfast to his original principles for painting which he had developed upon joining Gutai: to paint on smaller canvases so that the action and energy of his foot-strokes extends beyond the material support’s limits, and to leave his canvases untitled, insisting that “the title of the work hinders viewers from perceiving the visual sensibility the work presents; in fact, it destroys that perception.” In this way 'T32' is pure energy and embodied force, and a primary example of the violent meeting between body and matter that Shiraga dedicated his life to exploring.
