Hiroshi Sugimoto
1948 Born in Tokyo, Japan
1970 Graduated from Saint Paul’s University, Tokyo
1974 Graduated from Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles
1974 Moved to New York
Hanoi, Vietnam – The Bui Gallery is proud to present “The Origins of Love,” a pioneering exhibition of photography by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.
Hiroshi Sugimoto takes the world as his theatre. Fascinated by architecture, history and contemporary life, his photographs probe the relationship between time and capturing it to delve into questions about the nature of reality. As a fierce admirer of Marcel Duchamp, Sugimoto takes a surreal eye to his subjects, transforming ordinary scenes into newly engaging works of art. Working in New York since the 1970s, he has used photography and printmaking to refashion old ideas about what photography can achieve. “Dioramas” (1976-), “Seascapes” (1980-), “Theatres” (1978-) and “Architecture” (2002) are among his most acclaimed series’, the diversity of which speak for the seemingly endless depth of his work.
The Bui Gallery Hanoi is pleased to present “The Origins of Love,” nine photographs chosen by Sugimoto himself. The eight black and white photos are taken from his first series, “Dioramas,” which captures and surveys natural history displays in museums throughout the United States. Here, Sugimoto offers us a glimpse of a prehistoric past through three lenses: the museum display curator’s, the contemporary photographer’s and our own. The ninth photograph, “The Music Lesson,” is taken from the series “Portraits” (1999) and is the first color photograph Sugimoto ever chose to exhibit. A restaging of the dramatic Johannes Vermeer painting of the same title, Sugimoto’s “The Music Lesson” is doubly removed from its original subject and thus engages the same questions. Relit, recast, replayed, it is presented anew in our contemporary world. In this landmark exhibition, the artist examines the manner in which cultures tell their stories of evolution and development, and through this exploration, his process reveals the parallels between the artifice of natural history displays and captured moments of contemporary culture. From prehistory to the early modern era to now and beyond, we all must constantly grapple with who we are and how we look at ourselves. Sugimoto helps us along.
Hiroshi Sugimoto has been honored with a Praemium Impierale Award and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. He has been the subject of more than a hundred solo and group exhibitions in his long career, including being featured at The Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao, Berlin), DIA Art Center (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Centre Pompidou (Paris) and The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa). He is represented by Gagosian Gallery in New York.
Exhibition Dates: 17 January – 3 February 2010
Opening: Saturday 16 January, 6pm
Gallery Hours: Monday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Contact: contact@thebuigallery.com
tel: +84 (04) 3944 8595
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