Wikipedia

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto(Sam bổn bác tư,Sugimoto Hiroshi,born 23 February 1948)is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory.[1]

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Sam bổn bác tư
Sugimoto in 2008
Born(1948-02-23)February 23, 1948(age 76)
Tokyo, Japan
Known forPhotography, Architecture, Film Industry
Websitewww.sugimotohiroshi.com
"Appropriate Proportion", one of his architectural projects. Renovation of Gooh shrine,Naoshima,Kagawa prefecture,Japan

Early life and education

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Hiroshi Sugimoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He reportedly took his earliest photographs in high school, photographing film footage ofAudrey Hepburnas it played in a movie theater.[2]In 1970, Sugimoto studied politics and sociology atRikkyō Universityin Tokyo. In 1974, he retrained as an artist and received his BFA in Fine Arts at theArt Center College of Design,Pasadena, California. Afterwards, Sugimoto settled in New York City. He soon started working as a dealer of Japanese antiquities inSoho.[3]

Work

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Sugimoto has spoken of his work as an expression of 'time exposed',[4]or photographs serving as a time capsule for a series of events in time. His work also focuses on transience of life, and the conflict between life and death.

Sugimoto is also deeply influenced by the writings and works ofMarcel Duchamp,as well as theDadaistandSurrealistmovements as a whole. He has also expressed a great deal of interest in late 20th century modern architecture.

His use of an 8×10large-formatcamera and extremely long exposures has garnered Sugimoto a reputation as a photographer of the highest technical ability. He is equally acclaimed for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work.[citation needed]

Dioramas,In Praise of ShadowsandPortraits

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Sugimoto began his work withDioramasin 1976, a series in which he photographed displays in natural history museums. (A polar bear on a fake ice floe contemplates his fresh-killed seal; vultures fight over carrion in front of painted skies; exotic monkeys hoot in a plastic jungle.)[5]Initially the pictures were shot at theAmerican Museum of Natural History,a place he returned for later dioramas in 1982, 1994, and 2012.[6]Where many of the earlier silver gelatin prints – includingPolar Bear(1976), his first photograph from theDioramaseries – present animals, a number of the 2012 photographs includingMixed Deciduous ForestandOlympic Rain Forestfocus on natural landscapes.[7]The cultural assumption that cameras always show us reality tricks many viewers into assuming the animals in the photos are real until they examine the pictures carefully.

His seriesPortraits,begun as a commission by theDeutsche Guggenheimin 1999,[8]is based on a similar idea. In that series, Sugimoto photographs wax figures ofHenry VIIIand his wives. These wax figures are based on portraits from the 16th century and when taking the picture Sugimoto attempts to recreate the lighting that would have been used by the painter. Focusing onMadame Tussaud'sin London, its branch in Amsterdam and a wax museum in Ito, Japan, Sugimoto took three-quarter view photos, using 8-by-10-inch negatives, of the most realistic wax figures. They are typically taken against a black background.[9]In Praise of Shadows(1998) is a series of photographs based onGerhard Richter's paintings of burning candles.[2]

Theatres

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In 1978, Sugimoto'sTheatresseries[10]involved photographing old American movie palaces and drive-ins with a folding 4x5 camera and tripod, opening his camera shutter and exposing the film for the duration of the entire feature-length movie, the film projector providing the sole lighting.[11]The luminescent screen in the centre of thecomposition,the architectural details and the seats of the theatre are the only subjects that register owing to the long exposure of each photograph, while the unique lighting gives the works a surreal look, as a part of Sugimoto's attempt to reveal time in photography.[12]Sugimoto discovered that "Different movies give different brightnesses. If it's an optimistic story, I usually end up with a bright screen; if it's a sad story, it's a dark screen. Occult movie? Very dark."[13]

Seascapes

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In 1980 he began working on an ongoing series of photographs of the sea and its horizon,Seascapes,in locations all over the world, using an old-fashioned large-format camera to make exposures of varying duration (up to three hours).[14][15]The locations range from theEnglish Channeland theCliffs of Moher[16]to the Arctic Ocean, fromPositano,Italy, to theTasman Seaand from theNorwegian SeaatVesterålento theBlack SeaatOzulucein Turkey. The black-and-white pictures are all exactly the same size, bifurcated exactly in half by the horizon line.[17]The systematic nature of Sugimoto's project recalls the workSunrise and Sunset at PraianobySol LeWitt,in which he photographed sunrises and sunsets over theTyrrhenian SeaoffPraiano,Italy, on theAmalfi Coast.[18]

Architecture works

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In 1995, Sugimoto photographed theSanjūsangen-dō( "Hall of Thirty-Three Bays" ) in Kyoto. In special preparation for the shoot, he had all late-medieval and early-modern embellishments removed, as well as having the contemporary fluorescent lighting turned off.[19]Shot from a high vantage point[5]and editing out all architectural features, the resulting 48 photographs[5]concentrate on thebodhisattvas,1,000 life-size and almost identical gilded figures carved from wood in the 12th and 13th centuries, that are banked up inside the building.[20]

In 1997, on a commission from theMuseum of Contemporary Artin Chicago, Sugimoto began producing series of large-format photographs of notable buildings around the world. In 2003, the museum showed the series in a sepulchral installation, with the pictures installed on layered rows of dark-painted partitions.[21]Sugimoto's laterArchitectureseries (2000–03) consists of blurred images of well-known examples ofModernist architecture.[22]

In 2001, Sugimoto traveled the length of Japan, visiting the so-calledmeisho"famous sites" for pines:Miho no Matsubara,Matsushima,Amanohashidate.[23]On the royal palace grounds in Tokyo, Sugimoto photographed a pine landscape, copying a traditional 16th-century Japanese ink-painting style.[24]Listed as Japanese national treasures, theShōrin-zu byōbu(Pine Forest Screens) (ca. 1590) byMomoyama period(1568 1600) painterHasegawa Tōhaku(1539–1610) represent a coming of age in Japanese imaging.

Joe

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In July 2003 Sugimoto travelled to St. Louis to photograph thePulitzer Arts Foundation,designed byTadao Andowhose work he had portrayed various times before. However, his ended up photographingRichard Serra's sculptureJoe(the first in his "Torqued Spiral" series), which rests in an outdoor courtyard, at dawn and at dusk for five days.[25]The resultingJoeseries was made with short exposure. The blurring effect results from Sugimoto's unconventional use of the flexibility of the large format camera, whereby he sets the distance between the lens and the film to half the focal length, in his words "twice-infinity".[26]Sugimoto gave the photographs serial numbers from hisArchitectureseries. Significantly, the hand-developed gelatin-silver photographs are mounted on aluminum panels but are otherwise unframed, unglazed and unlaminated to draw attention to what Sugimoto describes as the "transformation from the three-dimensional steel source sculpture to the thin layers of what I would call my 'silver sculpture'."[27]When the Pulitzer Arts Foundation decided to publish a book about the series, Sugimoto askedJonathan Safran Foer,whom he had met years earlier, to write a text to accompany the nineteen selected photographs.[25]

A 2004 series comprises large photographs of antique mathematical and mechanical models, which Sugimoto came across in Tokyo and shot from slightly below.[28]The Mathematical forms – stereometric models in plaster – were created in the 19th century to provide students with a visual understanding of complextrigonometric functions.The Mechanical forms – machine models including gears, pumps and regulators – are industrial tools used to demonstrate basic movements of modern machinery. Sugimoto began working on this series as a response toThe Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even(The Large Glass)byMarcel Duchamp.[29]

For the seriesStylized Sculpture(2007), Sugimoto selected distinctive garments by celebrated couturiers from the collection of theKyoto Costume Institute,shot inchiaroscuroon headless mannequins—fromMadeleine Vionnet's precociously modern T-dress andBalenciaga's wasp-waisted billowing ensemble toYves St Laurent's strict geometric Mondrian shift andIssey Miyake's sail-like slip.[30]

For his 2009 seriesLightning FieldsSugimoto abandoned the use of the camera, producing photographs using a 400,000 voltVan de Graaff generatorto apply an electrical charge directly onto the film.[11]Instead of placing an object on photo-sensitive paper, then exposing it to light, he produced the image by causing electrical sparks to erupt over the on surface of a 7-by-2.5-foot sheet of film laid on a large metal tabletop.[31]The highly detailed results combine bristling textures and branching sparks into highly evocative images.

Recent work

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In 2009U2selected Sugimoto'sBoden Sea, Uttwil(1993) as the cover for their albumNo Line on the Horizonto be released in March that year. This image had previously been used by sound artists Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree for their 2006 CD inspired by Sugimoto's "seascapes" series.[32]Sugimoto noted it was merely a "coincidence" that the image appears on both album covers. In addition, he notes that the agreement with U2 was a "stone age deal" or, artist-to-artist. No cash exchanged hands, rather a barter agreement which allows Sugimoto to use the band's song "No Line on the Horizon" (partly inspired by the "Boden Sea" image) in any future project.[33]

In 2009, Sugimoto acquired some rare negatives made byHenry Fox Talbotin the 1840s and retrieved through an intensely fragile process what "looks remarkably like Plato's shadows in the cave".[34]The works of Sugimoto'sAll Five Elementsseries (2011) consist of optical quality glass with black and white film.[35]On the occasion ofArt Baselin 2012, Sugimoto presentedCouleurs de l'Ombre,20 different colorful scarf designs in editions of just seven, all created – using a new inkjet printing method – for French fashion labelHermès.[36]

Architecture

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Sugimoto is also an accomplished architect. He founded his architecture practice in Tokyo after receiving requests to design structures from restaurants to art museums.[37]Because he does not have an architectural license himself—an official permit would require years of training—he hired three young qualified architects to help him execute his vision.[37]He approaches all of his work from many different perspectives, and architecture is one component that he uses to design the settings for his exhibitions. His recent projects include an architectural commission at Naoshima Contemporary Art Center in Japan, for which Sugimoto designed and built aShinto shrine.[38]He also gets involved with the performance art occurring beside them. This allows him to frame his works precisely the way he wants to.

In 2013, Sugimoto created a sculpture and rock garden for the Sasha Kanetanaka restaurant inOmotesandō, Tokyo.He also designed Stove, a top-tier French restaurant housed in a refurbished wooden house in the Kiyoharu Art Village,Yamanashi Prefecture.[39]The first in a series of temporary artist-designed structures at the Le Stanze del Vetro museum on view during theVenice Architecture Biennalein 2014, a Sugimoto-designed glass teahouse was set over a tiled pool and had the traditional tea ceremony performed for the public in it.[40]

In 2011, Sugimoto published an architecture book about the many museums that have shown his work, from the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., to the Fondation Cartier in Paris.[37]

TheHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardenannounced that in 2018 Sugimoto would transform the interior of theGordon Bunshaft-designed building. The plans included a coffee bar and removal of the tint on the windows.[1]

Sculpture

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Sugimoto designedPoint of Infinity,a nearly 70 ft-high stainless steel needle that also acts as a sundial, on top of the Yerba Buena Hilltop Park onYerba Buena Island.[41]

Exhibitions

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Sugimoto has exhibited extensively in major museums and galleries throughout the world, including theMuseum of Contemporary Artin Los Angeles (1994), theMetropolitan Museum of Art,New York (1995);Deutsche Guggenheim,Berlin (2000); theKunsthaus Bregenz,Austria (2002); theSerpentine Gallery,London (2003) and theFondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain,Paris (2004). A major 30-year survey of his work opened at theMori Art Museum,Tokyo in 2005 and travelled to theHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,Washington, D.C., and theModern Art Museum of Fort Worth,Texas (2006). In 2007, a European retrospective began at K20Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,Düsseldorf (2007) and traveled to the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg,Neue Nationalgalerie,Berlin and Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland. (2008). In 2011,Gagosian Galleryin Paris showed Sugimoto's seriesStylized SculpturealongsideRodin's sculpturesThe Three Shades(c. 1880),Monument to Victor Hugo(1897), andThe Whistler Muse(1908).[30]

In 2005,Japan Society,New York, andArthur M. Sackler Gallery,Washington, organized a US and Canadian tour of "Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History", an exhibition of artifacts that Sugimoto has collected over the years, particularly from East Asia and Japan, curated by the artist himself (travelled to the Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Art, Japan).[42]In 2013, Sugimoto exhibited his artwork alongside pieces from his personal collection at theFondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurentin Paris.[3]

His exhibition, "Lost Human Genetic Archive", at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2016, incorporated selected images from Dioramas, Seascapes, Theaters and the Sanjūsangen-dō series, among others. His exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 2018 featured 34 large-scale photographs from Sugimoto's central series. A retrospective of his work is currently showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2024).

Collections

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Sugimoto's work is held in numerous public collections including theMetropolitan Museum of Art,New York;Moderna Museet,Stockholm;Centre Georges Pompidou,Paris;Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo;Museum of Modern Art,New York;National Gallery,London;National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo;Smithsonian Institution,Washington, D.C.;MACBA,Barcelona; andTate Gallery,London.[43]

Odawara Art Foundation

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In 2009, Sugimoto established the Odawara Art Foundation to promote Japanese culture.[44]In 2014, theJapan Societyawarded a $6 million grant to the foundation.[44]The money will go to the construction of a multidisciplinary arts complex in Odawara, about 60 miles west of Tokyo. The project is expected to be completed in spring 2016. The project includes an original 15th-century entrance gate, a minimalist exhibition space, a modern Japanese teahouse, and a contemporary Noh theater with a stage that appears to float above the sea.[37]The foundation will produce joint productions with the Japan Society as well as artist-in-residency programs at the new complex. The two institutions will also collaborate on exhibitions and performances.[44]

Awards

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Books

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  • Seascapes.Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1994.ISBN0-914357-32-8.
  • Time Exposed.London: Thames & Hudson, 1995.ISBN0-500-97427-6.
  • In Praise of Shadows.Germany: Steidl, 2000.ISBN4-7713-3414-5.
  • Theatres.Koln: Walther Konig, 2006.ISBN0-615-11596-9.

Art market

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Sugimoto has been represented byPace Gallery,New York, since 2010,[46]while also regularly showing withGagosian Gallery.Before, he showed withSonnabend Gallery.

References

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  1. ^abElizabeth Fazzare (18 December 2017)."Hiroshi Sugimoto Chosen for Hirshhorn Museum's First Aesthetic Transformation".Architectural Digest.Retrieved18 December2017.
  2. ^abHiroshi SugimotoArchived14 October 2014 at theWayback MachineSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum,New York.
  3. ^abElisa Lipsky-Karasz (11 September 2013),Hiroshi Sugimoto's Fossil InspirationWall Street Journal
  4. ^Mateusz Palka (2 June 2016),Photographs of the stolen view. Issues of time in works of Hiroshi Sugimoto.
  5. ^abcBlake Gopnik (20 February 2006),Hiroshi Sugimoto, Emphasizing the Play Of Shadow and LieWashington Post.
  6. ^Randy Kennedy (8 October 2012),'Fossilizing' With a CameraNew York Times.
  7. ^Hiroshi Sugimoto: Still Life, May 9 – June 28, 2014Pace Gallery,New York.
  8. ^Snapshot: 'Catherine Parr' (1999) by Hiroshi SugimotoFinancial Times,10 August 2012.
  9. ^Katherine Roth (10 September 2001),Framing a Snapshot in TimeLos Angeles Times.
  10. ^Belting, Hans and Hiroshi Sugimoto.Theatres.Koln: Sonnabend Sundell Editions and Eyestorm, 2006.ISBN9780615115962.
  11. ^abcPeter Yeoh (2010). "Capturing Light – Hiroshi Sugimoto reveals the essence of his life's work".Glass Magazine.No. 2. pp. 174–179.ISSN2041-6318.
  12. ^Peter Yeoh (2010). "Capturing Light – Hiroshi Sugimoto reveals the essence of his life's work". Glass Magazine (2): 174–179. ISSN 2041-6318
  13. ^Belting, Hans and Hiroshi Sugimoto.Theatres.
  14. ^David Pagel (18 December 1997),A Focus on TranquillityLos Angeles Times.
  15. ^Hiroshi Sugimoto:7 Days / 7 Nights,November 6, 2008 – February 14, 2009Archived5 February 2011 at theWayback MachineGagosian Gallery,New York.
  16. ^"North Atlantic Ocean, Cliffs of Moher," Hiroshi Sugimoto 1989.Metropolitan Museum of Arthttp://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/267005.html
  17. ^William Wilson (4 March 1994),Sugimoto's Sea of Meditation at MOCALos Angeles Times.
  18. ^Charles Hagen (21 February 1992),ART IN REVIEW; Hiroshi SugimotoNew York Times.
  19. ^Sea of Buddhas(1995)Archived7 May 2012 at theWayback MachineHiroshi Sugimoto.
  20. ^John Russell(7 December 1995),PHOTOGRAPHY VIEW; Radiant Wonders of the Mid-Century WorldNew York Times.
  21. ^Holland Cotter(17 October 2003),ART IN REVIEW; Hiroshi Sugimoto – 'Architecture'New York Times.
  22. ^Hiroshi SugimotoGuggenheim Collection.
  23. ^Pine Trees(2001)Archived7 May 2012 at theWayback MachineHiroshi Sugimoto.
  24. ^Ann Wilson Lloyd (11 February 2001),The Hall of Mirrors Meets the House of WaxNew York Times.
  25. ^abAndrew Blum (17 September 2006),Art Capturing Art Capturing Art Capturing...New York Times.
  26. ^Hiroshi Sugimoto,ArchitectureArchived12 December 2013 at theWayback Machine
  27. ^Hiroshi Sugimoto:Joe,September 9 – October 14, 2006Gagosian Gallery,Los Angeles.
  28. ^Michael Kimmelman(27 May 2005),ART IN REVIEW; Hiroshi SugimotoNew York Times.
  29. ^Hiroshi Sugimoto: Conceptual Forms, April 7 – May 28, 2005Gagosian Gallery,London.
  30. ^abRodin – Sugimoto, February 11 – March 25, 2011Gagosian Gallery,Paris.
  31. ^Carol Kino (11 November 2010),Stealing Mother Nature's ThunderNew York Times.
  32. ^Is the New U2 Album Cover a Rip-off?Archived20 January 2009 at theWayback MachineRetrieved 19 January 2009
  33. ^Photographer Sugimoto strikes a Stone Age deal with U2.The Japan Times. Retrieved 18 November 2010
  34. ^Laura Cumming (14 August 2012),Hiroshi Sugimoto; The Queen: Art and Image; Elizabeth Blackadder; Ingrid Calame – reviewThe Guardian.
  35. ^Hiroshi Sugimoto:Five Elements, 2011,October 7 – July 15, 2012Archived27 May 2012 at theWayback MachineChinati Foundation, Marfa.
  36. ^Nick Compton (19 June 2012),Limited-edition Hermès Editeur scarves by Hiroshi SugimotoWallpaper.
  37. ^abcdLara Day (23 January 2014),Hiroshi Sugimoto Designs Own MuseumWall Street Journal
  38. ^Hiroshi Sugimoto: The Day After, November 6 – December 24, 2010.Pace Gallery, New York.
  39. ^Darryl Jingwen Wee (8 October 2013),Hiroshi Sugimoto-designed Restaurant Opens in YamanashiArtinfo.
  40. ^Julie Lasky (4 June 2014),Tea for Two and Visible to AllNew York Times
  41. ^Julie Baumgardner (13 January 2023),Moving the needle: San Francisco to unveil Hiroshi Sugimoto's towering sundial monumentThe Art Newspaper.
  42. ^Grace Glueck (23 September 2005),Hiroshi Sugimoto ShowNew York Times.
  43. ^Rothko/Sugimoto: Dark Paintings and Seascapes, October 4, 2012 – November 17, 2012Archived14 April 2013 at theWayback MachinePace Gallery,London.
  44. ^abcCarol Vogel (6 February 2014),Japan Society GrantNew York Times.
  45. ^Kimberly Chou (15 May 2014),Sculptor's Honors CubedWall Street Magazine.
  46. ^Carol Vogel (28 January 2010),[1]New York Times.
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