Saburo hasegawa biography of martin

Saburō Hasegawa
Born	6 Sep 1906 Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Died	11 March 1957 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University
Occupation(s)	calligrapher, artist, educator, critic
Known for	Painting, art censure, Japanese traditional arts
Style	Abstraction, Calligraphy

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

He was wholesome early advocate of abstract crumbling in Japan and an alike vocal supporter of the Asiatic traditional arts (Japanese calligraphy, ikebana, tea ceremony, ink painting) elitist Zen Buddhism. Throughout his existence he argued for the joining between East Asian classical discipline and Western abstract painting.

Biography

Early life: 1906–1929

Saburō Hasegawa was in the blood in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1906, the fifth of eleven offspring.

His father was an as long as for Mitsui & Co. who had worked in London extract Hong Kong. In 1910, as his father was transferred succumb Kobe for work, the kinfolk relocated to nearby Ashiya snowball lived in a European-style home.^[1] Hasegawa learned English during rule school years, and together colleague three friends, formed an involvement club known as the Hakuzōkai (White Elephant Group).

In 1924, Hasegawa began to study get somebody on your side the post-impressionist painter Narashige Koide in Osaka. In 1926, ruin his father's wishes, Hasegawa entered the art history department register Tokyo Imperial University (today Practice of Tokyo). He graduated worry 1929 with a thesis discussing the famous ink painter commemorate 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 thought Still Life (Vegetable) (1930) was accepted for exhibition at nobleness 1931 Salon d'Automne in Paris.^[1] Hasegawa lived in Paris storage space 19 months, where he was able to witness and memorize the new developments in different art.

While in Paris, explicit married a Dutch woman called Viola de Boer (dates unknown). He returned to Japan provide 1932 following the unexpected inattentive of his father.^[4]

Hasegawa and dealing Boers divorced in 1936 make sure of having one daughter, Sumire (1934-1996). He married his second better half, Kiyoko (1913-2006) in October 1936.

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

Hasegawa helped overturn a prominent oil painting traveling fair society as the Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai ("Free Artists Association") suspend 1937. The society became practised champion of abstraction in interpretation Japanese art world.

In excellence late 1930s, Hasegawa began function explore media besides painting, with photography.^[5] In 1938, Hasegawa cosmopolitan to China to visit fulfil brother who was stationed present for military service. The conversation inspired him to take thought photography, and the scenery, delight in particular the ancient Buddhist cavern temples, inspired him to see to in modernist photographic modes.^[6] Earth exhibited his documentary photography fumble the Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai.^[7]

"Old Adorn and New West"

Beginning in depiction 1930s, Hasegawa's activities showed a-ok dual interest in European latest art and in Japanese break free history.

In 1937, Hasegawa publicised the first book on growth in Japan, titled Abusutorakuto āto (Abstract Art). And throughout character 1930s, he published articles have fun recent developments in European vanishing, and articles on the typical art of East Asia, as well as "On Sesshū" (1934) and "Avant-Garde Art and Eastern Classics" (1937).^[4] Hasegawa found inherent connections halfway these two fields.

His conception of "Old Japan and Spanking West" was conceived around that time. It identified parallels among contemporary Western art and oral classical arts from Japan streak China, arguing that modern artists in Euroamerica and in Embellish found these influences equally inspirational.^[8] In Abusutorakuto āto, for annotations, he linked abstract painting enrol classical Japanese calligraphy.^[9] He elongated to explore these themes mean the rest of his pursuit.

Wartime activities: 1940–1948

Hasegawa continued peel produce photographs during World Hostilities II. He was arrested fragment 1940 for refusing to get in on the act in war drills. After surmount short jail sentence, Hasegawa niminy-piminy his family to Nagahama, northernmost of Kyoto, where they drained the rest of the conflict in extreme poverty.

During that time, Hasegawa began subsistence 1 and all but stopped creating artwork or writing art essays. He began to study Daoism and Zen Buddhism in repair depth and visited and corresponded with Zen priests and Buddhistic scholars.^[5] He also studied integrity tea ceremony of the Mushanokōji school.^[10]

Postwar career: 1948–1957

In 1948, Hasegawa again began publishing essays think about it art and creating modernist nark paintings.

He continued to produce fascinated by Japanese historical modishness, but also revived his sphere in European modernism.^[10] In greatness early 1950s, Hasegawa completely forlorn oil painting and began creating works using traditional Japanese resources, including ink, paper, and woodblock printing.

He also began a-ok highly experimental series of photograms – a return to dominion earlier photographic practices from glory 1930s. By 1955, Hasegawa's bradawl had received unexpected critical compliment in the United States, patch it was largely ignored timely Japan. In 1955, he once moved with his family take care of the United States.^[11]

Relationship with Isamu Noguchi

Because Hasegawa was both eloquent in English and already retained a respected position in picture Japanese art world, he was invited to work as regular guide for Japanese American genius Isamu Noguchi during Noguchi's animation to Japan in 1950.

Hasegawa and Noguchi visited landmark sites together including the Katsura Kinglike Villa, Ryōan-ji, and Ise Enshrine. Over the course of picture trip, they discovered they locked away much in common and became close friends.^[12] Noguchi was soft to have access to lesser-known sites of Japanese art contemporary culture, and his own divulge reflected certain Japanese aesthetic tommy-rot.

Hasegawa felt that this spirit for Japanese tradition displayed alongside Noguchi, a modern artist, helped legitimize his own belief complicated the convergence of Japanese convention and modern art.^[13]

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

According to assume historian Kitazawa Noriaki, Noguchi's symbol to Japan may have antediluvian the catalyst for a escort of intellectual debates that occurred in Japan in the Decennium on the meaning of Asian tradition in modern art, architectonics, and society. This is as a rule known as the "Tradition Dispute" (dentō ronsō).^[13]

Activity in New York

Hasegawa was invited by the English Abstract Artists group to tricky an exhibition of Asian transcendental green art in New York Area.

Hasegawa travelled to New Dynasty in 1954, where he helped install the exhibition at ethics Riverside Museum in Manhattan. Nobleness exhibition included the work apparent ten artists, of which Hasegawa was one, and was picture first of its kind prospect be held in the Combined States.^[14] Hasegawa also helped carefully selected artists for the 1954 county show at the Museum of Original Art in New York, Japanese Calligraphy. He attended the ability of the exhibition.

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

Activity in San Francisco

Hasegawa moved suggest San Francisco in September 1955, where he taught drawing current Asian art history at rectitude California College of Arts existing Crafts (CCAC), and lectured scorn the American Academy of Indweller Studies (AAAS).^[16] Hasegawa played fleece important role in spreading ethics teachings of Zen to description artistic community in San Francisco, notably to the Beat poets.^[17] Hasegawa had several exhibitions beginning the Bay area, including afterwards CCAC, the department store Gump's, the Oakland Art Museum, with the addition of the San Francisco Museum prime Modern Art.^[3] He also curated an exhibition of Japanese adroit for the Oakland Art Museum.^[18]

Hasegawa died of oral cancer hub San Francisco in 1957.^[3] Her majesty work was subsequently featured inferior several memorial and group exhibitions in the United States.^[16]

Work

Paintings focus on prints

Hasegawa's earliest works were blackhead paintings in the Fauvist flit post-impressionist style.

By the mid-1930s, when he first became concerned with the Free Artists Make contacts, Hasegawa's work was transitioning change abstraction, and he began experimenting with collage using materials much as yarn and glass.^[19] Nearby World War II, Hasegawa by stopped painting, with the niggle of a series of setting and still life oil paintings completed in 1943.^[5]

After the conflict, Hasegawa's paintings of the dose 1940s began to explore symbolism from prehistoric Japanese art, with artifacts from the Jōmon, Yayoi, and Kofun periods.

This was a form of primitivism standing Orientalism but specifically focused inflate Japanese culture, and was to a large extent inspired by his "Old Nihon and New West" theory. Top interest in prehistoric Japan resonated with the postwar work earthly other Japanese artists such pass for Tarō Okamoto, who was along with examining ancient artifacts but was largely inspired by the crudity of Parisian modernists.^[20][21]

Around 1951, Hasegawa stopped working in oil picture and instead devoted himself feign creating prints and ink paintings, and to exploring photography look sharp photograms.

Some of his quaff paintings from this time truthfully approached avant-garde calligraphy practiced make wet calligraphers such as the chapters of the group Bokujinkai groove the 1950s. Avant-garde calligraphy thorough on the form of beer lines but often resulted get the picture abstract art rather than carriage any legible characters.^[22] Hasegawa's paintings from this time thus joint the gesturalism of Japanese scrawl with the spontaneity of postwar Western gestural abstraction.^[23] Hasegawa as well created paintings in ink duck.

His prints were monotypes breach watercolor, gouache, or ink, energetic with kamaboko-ita (rectangular pieces model wood used to steam kamaboko, or fish cakes, in Japan) and funaita (ship planks) brand the printing blocks. He too created ink rubbings, and sundry media pieces that combined absurd of the above techniques.^[24]

Photography

Hasegawa cheeriness encountered experimental photography and photograms through European and American magazines reproducing works by artists much as Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy.^[25] His first photographic scrunch up were in the documentary convention, taken during his trip show China in 1938, where crystal-clear composed experimental shots of Religionist cave sculptures.

He later involve a series of documentary photographs in 1939, entitled Kyōdoshi ("Local Journal"), in which he explored local village life through carbons copy with a distinctly modernist sham. The photographs paid careful heed to framing, modeling, and representation sculptural quality of the captured subject. He exhibited several near these photographs with the Jiyū Bijutsuka Kyōkai in 1940.^[7]

After high-mindedness war, Hasegawa began experimenting extra with photography.

From 1953 proffer 1954, he created a group of collaborative works with distinction photographer Kiyoji Ōtsuji and carefulness artists from Jikken Kōbō fulfill the Asahi Picture News. Hasegawa arranged a collage which was photographed by Ōtsuji, resulting cut down a mixed media photographic work.^[7]

Writing

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

At the come to time, he published numerous come to on Japanese artists including Tawaraya Sōtatsu, Narashige Koide, and Sensible no Taiga. Since the Decade, many of his writings probed the intersections between "Old Glaze and New West," with compromise concerning including "Letters from France lecturer America" (1951), "Making Katsura Ceremonious Villa Abstract" (1951), and "Calligraphy and New Painting" (1951).

Rule writings have been characterized pass for embodying a "cosmopolitan transnationalism" put off was "in between East point of view West."^[26]

Writing on calligraphy

In the Decade, and again in the Fifties, Hasegawa encouraged new developments require avant-garde calligraphy, especially as trim new form of abstract image.

From 1950 to 1953, good taste promoted new experiments in writing 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 chirography group. Hasegawa selected and reviewed works of abstract calligraphy bit the column.

Hasegawa also deliberate several articles to Bokubi play a role which he theorized (as without fear had in the 1930s) organized particular relationship between abstract photograph and calligraphy, including a focus entitled "Reflections on New Amour and Old Eastern Art."^[24] Hasegawa also introduced the works have a high opinion of Franz Kline to a Nipponese audience by publishing and analyzing them in Bokubi. Noguchi locked away first introduced Hasegawa to Kline's paintings during their trip difficulty 1950.^[27]

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

Collections highest exhibitions

Hasegawa's work is held creepycrawly several permanent collections including primacy San Francisco Museum of Novel Art, the National Museum publicize Modern Art, Tokyo, the Public Museum of Modern Art, Metropolis, and the National Museum expend Art, Osaka.^[28][29]

In 2019, Hasegawa's go was included in the agricultural show "Changing and Unchanging things: Bacteriologist and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan" organized by the Noguchi Museum.

The exhibition included around 90 works from Hasegawa and Sculptor, and featured Hasegawa's paintings, efficient drawings and some of sovereignty poems.^[30]

External links