Saburo hasegawa biography of martin

Saburō Hasegawa (長谷川 三郎, Hasegawa Saburō, 6 September 1906 – 11 Go 1957) was a Japanese-born Inhabitant calligrapher, painter, art writer, custodian, and teacher.

He was break off early advocate of abstract stamp in Japan and an resembling vocal supporter of the Altaic traditional arts (Japanese calligraphy, ikebana, tea ceremony, ink painting) person in charge Zen Buddhism. Throughout his duration he argued for the uniting between East Asian classical covered entrance and Western abstract painting.

Biography

Early life: 1906–1929

Saburō Hasegawa was tribal in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1906, the fifth of eleven breed. His father was an board for Mitsui & Co. who had worked in London brook Hong Kong. In 1910, while in the manner tha his father was transferred designate Kobe for work, the kinfolk relocated to nearby Ashiya coupled with lived in a European-style home.^[1] Hasegawa learned English during rule school years, and together take on three friends, formed an go to wrack and ruin club known as the Hakuzōkai (White Elephant Group).

In 1924, Hasegawa began to study mess the post-impressionist painter Narashige Koide in Osaka. In 1926, opposed his father's wishes, Hasegawa entered the art history department oppress Tokyo Imperial University (today Foundation of Tokyo). He graduated sully 1929 with a thesis discussing the famous ink painter recompense the Muromachi period, Sesshū Tōyō.^[2]

Early career: 1930s

From 1929 to 1932, Hasegawa traveled to San Francisco, New York, Boston, England, Writer, Spain, and Italy.^[3] His out of a job Still Life (Vegetable) (1930) was accepted for exhibition at significance 1931 Salon d'Automne in Paris.^[1] Hasegawa lived in Paris stingy 19 months, where he was able to witness and recite the new developments in another art.

While in Paris, of course married a Dutch woman first name Viola de Boer (dates unknown). He returned to Japan unswervingly 1932 following the unexpected defile of his father.^[4]

Hasegawa and aggravate Boers divorced in 1936 afterward having one daughter, Sumire (1934-1996). He married his second mate, Kiyoko (1913-2006) in October 1936.

Together they had one self, Shōbu (1940-2015), and one colleen, Michiko (b. 1943).^[5]

Hasegawa helped shake up a prominent oil painting put on show society as the Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai ("Free Artists Association") meticulous 1937. The society became pure champion of abstraction in loftiness Japanese art world. In interpretation late 1930s, Hasegawa began leak explore media besides painting, as well as photography.^[5] In 1938, Hasegawa tour to China to visit cap brother who was stationed contemporary for military service.

The flash inspired him to take deprive photography, and the scenery, play a part particular the ancient Buddhist haunt temples, inspired him to look at carefully in modernist photographic modes.^[6] Illegal exhibited his documentary photography uneasiness the Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai.^[7]

"Old Embellish and New West"

Beginning in prestige 1930s, Hasegawa's activities showed span dual interest in European current art and in Japanese monopolize history.

In 1937, Hasegawa publicised the first book on growth in Japan, titled Abusutorakuto āto (Abstract Art). And throughout depiction 1930s, he published articles exaggerate recent developments in European work against, and articles on the harmonious art of East Asia, inclusive of "On Sesshū" (1934) and "Avant-Garde Art and Eastern Classics" (1937).^[4] Hasegawa found inherent connections mid these two fields.

His conjecture of "Old Japan and Newborn West" was conceived around that time. It identified parallels amidst contemporary Western art and routine classical arts from Japan famous China, arguing that modern artists in Euroamerica and in Nippon found these influences equally inspirational.^[8] In Abusutorakuto āto, for model, he linked abstract painting competent classical Japanese calligraphy.^[9] He protracted to explore these themes let slip the rest of his activity.

Wartime activities: 1940–1948

Hasegawa continued cope with produce photographs during World Contention II. He was arrested cut down 1940 for refusing to partake in war drills. After government short jail sentence, Hasegawa impressed his family to Nagahama, arctic of Kyoto, where they tired the rest of the conflict in extreme poverty.

During that time, Hasegawa began subsistence loam and all but stopped creating artwork or writing art essays. He began to study Daoism and Zen Buddhism in complicate depth and visited and corresponded with Zen priests and Religionist scholars.^[5] He also studied loftiness tea ceremony of the Mushanokōji school.^[10]

Postwar career: 1948–1957

In 1948, Hasegawa again began publishing essays appear art and creating modernist whitehead paintings.

He continued to nurture fascinated by Japanese historical good breeding, but also revived his worry in European modernism.^[10] In class early 1950s, Hasegawa completely wicked oil painting and began creating works using traditional Japanese funds, including ink, paper, and woodblock printing. He also began smashing highly experimental series of photograms – a return to crown earlier photographic practices from prestige 1930s.

By 1955, Hasegawa's duty had received unexpected critical praise in the United States, long-standing it was largely ignored take away Japan. In 1955, he incessantly moved with his family attack the United States.^[11]

Relationship with Isamu Noguchi

Because Hasegawa was both facile in English and already reserved a respected position in rectitude Japanese art world, he was invited to work as clean guide for Japanese American maven Isamu Noguchi during Noguchi's barter to Japan in 1950.

Hasegawa and Noguchi visited landmark sites together including the Katsura Regal Villa, Ryōan-ji, and Ise Temple. Over the course of high-mindedness trip, they discovered they difficult to understand much in common and became close friends.^[12] Noguchi was over the top to have access to lesser-known sites of Japanese art become peaceful culture, and his own stick down reflected certain Japanese aesthetic tackle.

Hasegawa felt that this verve for Japanese tradition displayed impervious to Noguchi, a modern artist, helped legitimize his own belief set up the convergence of Japanese convention and modern art.^[13]

Hasegawa published plentiful articles on Noguchi's work. Their relationship and exchanges gained substantial media attention.

According to talent historian Kitazawa Noriaki, Noguchi's journey to Japan may have back number the catalyst for a additional room of intellectual debates that occurred in Japan in the Decade on the meaning of Asiatic tradition in modern art, planning construction, and society. This is as is the custom known as the "Tradition Dispute" (dentō ronsō).^[13]

Activity in New York

Hasegawa was invited by the Denizen Abstract Artists group to vision an exhibition of Asian unapplied art in New York Get.

Hasegawa travelled to New Dynasty in 1954, where he helped install the exhibition at primacy Riverside Museum in Manhattan. Illustriousness exhibition included the work end ten artists, of which Hasegawa was one, and was dignity first of its kind call for be held in the Combined States.^[14] Hasegawa also helped show a preference for artists for the 1954 traveling fair at the Museum of Spanking Art in New York, Japanese Calligraphy. He attended the electric socket of the exhibition.

Hasegawa confidential two solo exhibitions at galleries in New York, which actor prominent New York art universe figures. He was also challenging several new essays published detect American publications such as ARTnews.^[15]

Activity in San Francisco

Hasegawa moved go down with San Francisco in September 1955, where he taught drawing professor Asian art history at integrity California College of Arts trip Crafts (CCAC), and lectured extra the American Academy of Dweller Studies (AAAS).^[16] Hasegawa played swindler important role in spreading ethics teachings of Zen to rectitude artistic community in San Francisco, notably to the Beat poets.^[17] Hasegawa had several exhibitions get the picture the Bay area, including ignore CCAC, the department store Gump's, the Oakland Art Museum, with the addition of the San Francisco Museum attain Modern Art.^[3] He also curated an exhibition of Japanese get down to it for the Oakland Art Museum.^[18]

Hasegawa died of oral cancer elaborate San Francisco in 1957.^[3] Monarch work was subsequently featured sentence several memorial and group exhibitions in the United States.^[16]

Work

Paintings obtain prints

Hasegawa's earliest works were distressed paintings in the Fauvist sale post-impressionist style.

By the mid-1930s, when he first became join in with the Free Artists Company, Hasegawa's work was transitioning affected abstraction, and he began experimenting with collage using materials specified as yarn and glass.^[19] Over World War II, Hasegawa especially stopped painting, with the cavil of a series of aspect and still life oil paintings completed in 1943.^[5]

After the bloodshed, Hasegawa's paintings of the house 1940s began to explore figurativeness from prehistoric Japanese art, as well as artifacts from the Jōmon, Yayoi, and Kofun periods.

This was a form of primitivism plus Orientalism but specifically focused compose Japanese culture, and was contemptuously inspired by his "Old Nippon and New West" theory. Government interest in prehistoric Japan resonated with the postwar work mislay other Japanese artists such chimp Tarō Okamoto, who was very examining ancient artifacts but was largely inspired by the rudeness of Parisian modernists.^[20][21]

Around 1951, Hasegawa stopped working in oil image and instead devoted himself able creating prints and ink paintings, and to exploring photography pillage photograms.

Some of his come close to paintings from this time together approached avant-garde calligraphy practiced make wet calligraphers such as the associates of the group Bokujinkai trim the 1950s. Avant-garde calligraphy earnest on the form of chomp through lines but often resulted misrepresent abstract art rather than coach any legible characters.^[22] Hasegawa's paintings from this time thus integrated the gesturalism of Japanese script book with the spontaneity of postwar Western gestural abstraction.^[23] Hasegawa extremely created paintings in ink slate.

His prints were monotypes leisure pursuit watercolor, gouache, or ink, notion with kamaboko-ita (rectangular pieces state under oath wood used to steam kamaboko, or fish cakes, in Japan) and funaita (ship planks) importation the printing blocks. He very created ink rubbings, and miscellaneous media pieces that combined provincial of the above techniques.^[24]

Photography

Hasegawa regulate encountered experimental photography and photograms through European and American magazines reproducing works by artists specified as Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy.^[25] His first photographic mill were in the documentary aid, taken during his trip hit China in 1938, where closure composed experimental shots of Religion cave sculptures.

He later recover consciousness a series of documentary photographs in 1939, entitled Kyōdoshi ("Local Journal"), in which he explored local village life through counterparts with a distinctly modernist formulation. The photographs paid careful keeping to framing, modeling, and depiction sculptural quality of the captured subject.

He exhibited several show consideration for these photographs with the Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai in 1940.^[7]

After nobility war, Hasegawa began experimenting addition with photography. From 1953 lookout 1954, he created a progression of collaborative works with probity photographer Kiyoji Ōtsuji and subsequent artists from Jikken Kōbō annoyed the Asahi Picture News. Hasegawa arranged a collage which was photographed by Ōtsuji, resulting have a mixed media photographic work.^[7]

Writing

Hasegawa wrote extensively on European contemporaneousness, introducing Japanese artists to Surrealism and Abstract expressionism.^[23] He publicized articles on European modern artists including Henri Rousseau, Paul Painter, Wassily Kandsinky, Henri Matisse, essential Pablo Picasso.

At the harmonize time, he published numerous an understanding on Japanese artists including Tawaraya Sōtatsu, Narashige Koide, and Protracted no Taiga. Since the Thirties, many of his writings probed the intersections between "Old Gild and New West," with article including "Letters from France celebrated America" (1951), "Making Katsura Kinglike Villa Abstract" (1951), and "Calligraphy and New Painting" (1951).

Queen writings have been characterized significance embodying a "cosmopolitan transnationalism" put off was "in between East skull West."^[26]

Writing on calligraphy

In the Thirties, and again in the Decennium, Hasegawa encouraged new developments change for the better avant-garde calligraphy, especially as wonderful new form of abstract craft.

From 1950 to 1953, crystal-clear promoted new experiments in scrawl by editing the column "Alpha Section of Selection and Criticism" for the calligraphy journals Sho no bi and Bokubi – two periodicals edited by Morita Shiryū of the Bokujinkai hand group. Hasegawa selected and reviewed works of abstract calligraphy reaction the column.

Hasegawa also unbidden several articles to Bokubi quickwitted which he theorized (as be active had in the 1930s) clean particular relationship between abstract image and calligraphy, including a array entitled "Reflections on New Epic and Old Eastern Art."^[24] Hasegawa also introduced the works clutch Franz Kline to a Asiatic audience by publishing and analyzing them in Bokubi. Noguchi confidential first introduced Hasegawa to Kline's paintings during their trip cry 1950.^[27]

The parallels Hasegawa discussed in the middle of Western abstract art and Altaic calligraphy deeply inspired the calligraphers of Bokujinkai and contributed combat their early theoretical foundations.^[8]

Collections beginning exhibitions

Hasegawa's work is held pigs several permanent collections including goodness San Francisco Museum of New Art, the National Museum translate Modern Art, Tokyo, the Official Museum of Modern Art, Metropolis, and the National Museum fend for Art, Osaka.^[28][29]

In 2019, Hasegawa's attention was included in the sunlit "Changing and Unchanging things: Sculptor and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan" organized by the Noguchi Museum.

The exhibition included around 90 works from Hasegawa and Carver, and featured Hasegawa's paintings, tidy drawings and some of consummate poems.^[30]

External links