HIROSHI SUGIMOTO
Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1948. Sugimoto is also described as a conceptual artist of photography. Since his “Dioramas” series which he photographed the taxidermy as if they were alive and were exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, he has created numerous photographic works such as “Seascapes”, “Theaters”, “Architecture”, “In Praise of Shadow”, and “Lightning Fields”. Sugimoto is also involved in many architectural designs, and his works also express his deep knowledge of ancient art, classical literature, and traditional theater performances. He moved to the United States in 1970 and studied photography at the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles. He moved to New York in 1974 where “Dioramas” was highly valued by John Szerkowski, the curator of the department of photography of MoMA at the time and was purchased by the museum. In 2009, he established the Odawara Art Foundation, aiming to promote and preserve the culture of Japanese classical theatre, ancient art as well as contemporary art. In 2017, the Enoura Observatory was opened in Odawara city after 10 years of planning and 10 years of construction. It exhibits a wide range of Sugimoto’s photographic works and architecture, with the aim to be the culmination of his overall activities and art philosophy.
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Title: Prospect Park Theater
Year: 1977
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 41.9 x 54 cm (16 1/2 x 21 1/4 in.) -
Title: Manatee
Year: 1994
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 42.2 x 54.3 cm (16 5/8 x 21 3/8 in.) -
Title: United Nations
Year: 1997
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: sheet size: 58.5 x 47 cm (23 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in.) frame size: 78 x 60.3 cm (30 3⁄4 x 23 3⁄4 in.) -
Title: Palais Garnier, Paris
Year: 2019
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 61 x 50.8 cm
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Prospect Park Theater
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Year: 1977One of the pieces from “Theaters” series by Hiroshi Sugimoto. In photography, the longer the film is exposed, the brighter the photo gets. This artwork is a photograph taken inside a movie theater, as the title suggests. However, no movie is projected on the screen, which is the most important element. The appearance of just a white screen brightly floating in the darkness is completely different from the movie theaters that we know. For the “Theaters” series, Sugimoto visited movie theaters all around the world and took a picture by leaving the shutter open from the beginning until the end of an entire movie. The scenes of the whole movie that lasted a few hours are all condensed and projected as a mass of light. As photographs are not video images and by nature, they only capture a very moment of the world, it is difficult to record time. Sugimoto has managed to capture both “movie theater=space” and “movie=light” in a single picture. It looks extremely static at first sight, in fact, it is a terrifyingly dynamic movie-like photograph.
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 41.9 x 54 cm (16 1/2 x 21 1/4 in.)
Edition: No.15 of 25
Acquired from PHILLIPS, 2022
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Manatee
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Year: 1994Among Sugimoto’s important early works is a series called “Dioramas,” which began with the artist capturing exhibited works at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as if they were actual landscapes. As part of the series, this work likely depicts an exhibited specimen from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, featuring a manatee parent and child. Although this is partly due to the high quality of the diorama itself, if one were to look at Sugimoto’s work without prior knowledge, one would mistakenly assume that the photograph captures a pleasant scene from the ocean. Documented with the precision and vividness characteristic of a large format camera with 8 x 10-inch film, the resolution’s exactitude is more pronounced than the similar “Theaters” and “Seascapes” series. Sugimoto’s expression magically imbues life into inanimate things would also lead to the “Portraits” series featuring wax figures. The “Dioramas” series led to Sugimoto being represented by New York’s legendary Sonnabend Gallery. In addition, this series also gained recognition from John Szarkowski, MoMA’s renowned curator of photography in the 70s, leading to the museum adding it to the collection. Within the context of art history, Szarkowski played an extraordinarily significant role in propelling the status of photography as art; the fact that Szarkowski, with his discerning eye, praised the work is evidence that the photography of the then-emerging Sugimoto possessed value as art due to the skill and aesthetic sense that he had already developed.
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 42.2 x 54.3 cm (16 5/8 x 21 3/8 in.)
Edition: No. 8 of 25
Acquired from Sotheby’s, 2022
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United Nations
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Year: 1997This is one of Sugimoto's “Architecture” series. As the title suggests, he captures the Headquarters of the United Nations building in New York. A team of architects representing the victorious countries worked on the design proposal, which was eventually compiled into the current architectural design by the chairman of the committee, Wallace Harrison of the USA, using a compromise of plans from Le Corbusier of France and Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil as the framework. Besides the distinctive thin-plate exterior, in Corbusier's original design, a hollow and floating structure with a pilotis as his specialty was drafted at the ground. Corbusier’s design was not realized due to major changes in the plan made by Harrison, which is said to have caused conflicts between them. Sugimoto's “Architecture” series deliberately photographs the prominent modernist architecture in a blurred focus. According to Sugimoto, architecture is realized through the compromise with reality and differs from the designer's initial visions. While the ideals of Corbusier and Niemeyer were certainly not achieved in their full form, their hidden thoughts must be dwelling as a spirit in the architecture in reality. Sugimoto dares to blur the solid outer shell of the building to revive the architect's ideals which are in apparent death within the building, and embody them as photographs.
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: sheet size: 58.5 x 47 cm (23 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄2 in.) frame size: 78 x 60.3 cm (30 3⁄4 x 23 3⁄4 in.)
Acquired from Sotheby’s, 2022
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Palais Garnier, Paris
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Year: 2019In Sugimoto's Theatre series, especially those with shots of opera house, are called “Opera House”. As the title suggests, this work captures the “Palais Garnier” in Paris. Designed by Charles Garnier in the reign of Napoleon III, it is an opera house which still operates today and is one of the most important architecture landmarks in Paris. It is also known as the stage for the musical “The Phantom of the Opera”. In addition to the thrilling scene of the large falling chandelier in the musical, the theatre space is the largest in Europe, decorated in a gorgeous Neo-Baroque style. In 1965, ceiling paintings by Marc Chagall were added and until then, a reproduction of the work by Jules-Eugène Lenepveu which was decorated on the ceiling, can be seen at Musée d'Orsay. In this work, the interior of the theater, with the overwhelming resolution of the large-format film, is depicted with meticulous detail. The long-exposure photography, as the main feature of the “Theatre” series, captures only the dazzling light on the stage without any performers or equipment. It seems to visualize the accumulation of the long history of the theatre in an earnest way.
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 61 x 50.8 cm
Edition: No.8 of 25
Acquired from Gallery Koyanagi, 2022