Amongst the season of intense heat waves, hanabi festivals and beach parties, it is almost natural for us local Tokyoites to look for a place to cool down from the energetic summer hype. Composed of minimal representation of balance, meditation and stillness, Isao Sugiyama “Santuario” exhibition at Tokyo Gallery can be that sanctuary. An experience that do not only calms the body and the mind, the exhibition also at the same time portrays a less-seen style of art in the current trend: art devoid of shock value that emphasize on the calmness of senses rather than provocation.
Sugiyama’s influences are both from his European style sculptural background and his Japanese root that drives his aesthetic sense of simplicity and stillness. Graduated in 1977 from the sculpture department at Zokei University, he continued his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrera, Italy. While living and working in Milan and Carrera, Sugiyama exhibited both in solo and group exhibitions mainly in European countries. “Santuario” marks Sugiyama’s solo exhibition in Tokyo first time in 20 years.
Sugiyama’s sculptures somewhat closely resemble Greece’s famous Meteora Monasteries in miniature, with a sprinkle of Asian twists. Standing on representational cliffs, the house-like structures, while seems neutral in marble, can also be closely identified with modern Japanese architectural aesthetics when done in wood, especially in their style of organized simplicity. The carved lines on the base marble in many of the sculptures also most likely aim to recreate Sugiyama’s own version of Japanese stone gardens, which besides being aesthetically representational in its revolving circular style, also reenforce similar ideas of meditation and stillness...
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...ill an essential part of staying alive. The theme is straight-forwardly portrayed by the contrast of processed house-like sculptures, though isolated, still represent influences by civilization, against the unprocessed marble that represent nature, devoid of any civilize touch.
The exhibition is filled with a sense of peace and stillness; a result of a clear combination of soft lighting that showers the whole room, a sense of vast space due to the minute size of the little sculptural houses, the sculptural relationships between the aesthetic of marbles and wood and religious references that provide us with mental calmness. With the absolute sense of peace intensely muting all other activities once inside the small gallery space, Sugiyama’s “Santuario” exhibition can be truly both a sanctuary and a very calming, yet thought-provoking experience on a hot summer day.
The painting was so popular, that he made its numerous versions with sightliest differences. The version presented in Metropolitan Museum, descended through the famil...
His last and final piece, which is very interesting, is called the "Stoneware Vase*" It has two curled spiral handles, suggestive of ancient or pre-historic civilizat...
To inspire the visualization of the idyllic Florida’s fields, this canvas is sized to produce that impression of your presence in the coast. With a sense of solitude that is accompany by the magic of the discovery of a beautiful romantic peace, this canvas transmits you the desire to be there. The scene makes you feel that you have found that special site where you want to be for the rest of your life in concordance with nature. It is easy to spot in this paint how diverse and unreceptive subtropical locality in early Florida define the subjective state of being. In this art he totally complies with one of the most delightful characterizations of Romanticism, he puts together the heart and the mind to idealize the authenticity of the wilderness in the scene according to what the artist considered relevant to present.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the finest Asian art collections that has enlightened and strengthened my understanding in my personal art experience. The Museum itself is an artistic architectural structure that graces the entire block on 82nd Street in Manhattan. Entering inside, I sensed myself going back into an era, into a past where people traded ideas and learned from each other. It is a past, where I still find their works of yesteryears vividly within my grasp, to be remembered and shared as if their reflections of works were cast for the modern devoted learner.
In conclusion of this research paper I believed I have gained a new and better appreciation of renaissance art. The period of great revolutions in art form and style is now one of my great favorites of all time. The Artsist that now has become a hero to me is Michelangelo. The Sistine chapel is a truly a place of great importance to art all around the world. While dissecting and analyzing the fresco it has been easier to see the crossing of disciplines. The great detail has been applied to sculpting stone has intern help the hand and brush to reveal the beauty of the human body.
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer born in Tokyo in 1948. Upon graduating from Saint Paul’s University in Tokyo with a degree in Sociology and Politics and moved to Los Angeles in 1970 and attended the Art Centre College of Design. He moved to New York in 1974 after receiving his Bachelors degree and now lives in Tokyo and in New York. He divides his work into photographic series, each representing a certain theme. He is most famous for his seascapes, movie theaters, natural history dioramas and portraits, and waxworks series. He explores the idea of photography and time, and uses photography as a way to record science and history alongside the idea of indescribable human nature. His aim when creating portraits is to make them as lifelike as possible so the viewer reconsiders what it is to be alive.
When beginning my sketch, I took a moment to analyze the work of art and found that the statue illuminated a sense of serenity. Like most viewers my initial reaction was to explore the statue from head to toe as I sought out the different elements and principles of art. The statue was close to life-size and just about my height, so looking straightforward we were eye to eye. I noticed the softness gathered about the facial structure, but all the same time the depth and complexity that was engulfed around the muscularity of the body. The rigorous symmetry was accounte...
The aesthetic form may be “tentatively define[d] as the result of the transformation of a given content (actual or historical, personal or social fact) into a self-contained whole,”. Art, when created in accordance to the aesthetic form, is the channeling of an experience into a subjective format, i.e. a novel, a painting, a piece of music, or any of the many different art forms. The reality of an event is translated into the chosen medium, and in this sublimation of the event, it is modified in accordance to the “demands of the art form” and the subjective perspective of the individual. The re-presentation of this event serves to “invoke the need for hope- a need rooted in the new consciousness embodied in the work of art”. When an event or object becomes the subject of a piece of art, it is necessarily changed according to the restrictions of the art form, artist, and veiwer. This change creates a new reality in where the event may take on a new meaning, thus challenging the original content of the event. This meaning is further influenced by subjectivity of the
Ever since the arrival of the Renaissance, new ways of approaching art physically and emotionally have been introduced by some of the most prominent men of the rebirth and by many lesser known people. The innovators of the Renaissance have brought into the art world many new characteristics and techniques to paintings and sculptures. From experimentation, to observation, to getting in touch with the human body and mind, artists of the time period were able to learn and build upon that knowledge. The information and innovations they contributed sculpted the modern world of creativity for us to learn, use, and develop our own styles for future generations in the light of artistic encouragement.
This artwork remains relevant today with the depiction of a Roman love story and the architecture. The structural work that went into this sculpture is inspiring because I feel that even with modern technology, knowledge can be gained from how this piece was constructed and designed. The story this artwork tells, of Cupid rescuing Psyche, despite insatiable curiosity, can also be inspiring.
Shanshui is a style of painting that has been practiced in China for one and a half millennia, it has a long history and it is part of world’s cultural heritage. It has always been more engaging to the hearts of the Chinese literati than flower-birds and human figure. Shanshui is not only for its own sake, but also as a vehicle, its because the it was never only about holding up a mirror to the landscape in keeping with dominant aesthetic tastes. It was always about reflecting on and negotiating the artists’ own position in relation to the world in that era – for centuries one with a majestic and noble nature of which humans were but a small and insignificant part. The other criteria were harmony, beauty and technique of execution.
Senior Thesis Show is a series of nine untitled works that are very dramatic in the kind of lighting he uses along with the classical style from which he paints. All the works in the show emit the feeling of isolation and solitude. With a combination of still life and figurative work the paintings start to tell a story of why his subjects are so isolated.
Man has always found pleasure in expressing himself by creating art. Through the centuries, man’s art has left behind clues and insight that enables the generations of today to understand their ancestors. In particular, historians and artist alike can see what certain Asian sculptures reflect of the culture and religious beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism is the parent religion to Buddhism; much like Judaism is to Christianity. Despite Buddhism and Hinduism sharing similar philosophies and various idealisms, their respective sculptures also show their differences. There are two important characteristic of the sculptures of these religions. The first is motion versus rest, and second the subject matter. It is these two types of characteristics historians and artist can help use to decipher Hindu and Buddhist sculptures.
Śaśibālā, , and Chandra Lokesh. Buddhist Art: In Praise of the Divine. New Delhi: Lustre Press, 2003. Print.
chase their dreams. In its proper residence, art can be very inspiring and provide a spectacular moment to the viewer. One of the most famous