PHOTOGRAPHS
Sugimoto, Hiroshi
Japan (1948 - )
Farnsworth House
2001
Gelatin silver print
23 x 18 1/2 in. (58.4 x 47 cm) image size; 25 x 20 in. (63.5 x 50.8 cm) mount sheet size; 23 3/4 x 19 7/16 in. (60.3 x 48.3 cm) sheet size
Gift of Burt and Jane Berman
FA 2009.51

Since 1997, Hiroshi Sugimoto has produced large format photographs of significant examples of modern architecture. Throughout the series Sugimoto creates a blurred image through a long exposure, reducing each structure to a study of light and form. The hard lines of modern architecture are softened in the photograph, asking the viewer to recall details and materials of the architecture from memories and associations. Thus, this dreamlike image alludes to the past through these recollections, as well as literally capturing the passage of time. The softness of the photograph also implies how nostalgia blurs reality, ultimately rendering a favorable image of the remembered. For this image, Sugimoto photographed the Farnsworth House, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1951. Considered Mies’ masterpiece, the Farnsworth House embodies and perfects the core values of Modern architecture. The house is constructed almost entirely of glass held together by a delicate steel framework that encompasses an open floor plan. Free of the partitions and ornamentation traditionally associated with a living space, the Farnsworth House strips what it means to “dwell” to its simplest form. -- Label copy for Videowatercolors: Carel Balth Among His Contemporaries, October 15, 2011, to January 22, 2012.

Since 1997, Hiroshi Sugimoto has produced exquisite photographs of the most significant examples of modern architecture. He creates ghost-like images through long exposures that reduce each structure to a study of light and form. Softening the hard lines of modern architecture, Sugimoto’s photograph asks the viewer to recall or imagine physical details and the properties of construction materials. The softness and fluidity of the photograph appears to suggest that nostalgia can blur and reshape reality, ultimately yielding a favorable and idealized image of the thing that is remembered.

For this image, Sugimoto photographed the Farnsworth House, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1951. The building, long considered an architectural masterpiece, embodies and perfects the core values of what has come to be known as the International Style. The open floor plan of the house, constructed almost entirely of glass held together by a delicate steel framework, is free of partitions, ornamentation, and the trappings traditionally associated with a living space. The iconic building distills what it means to “dwell” to its most essential, pure, and elegant form.

Hiroshi Sugimoto lives and works as an artist between Tokyo and New York. He studied at Saint Paul’s University, Tokyo in 1970 and received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles in 1974. Sugimoto has had solo and group shows worldwide including Museum Brandhorst, Munich, 2012; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 2011; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2009; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2008. His work is part of collections worldwide, including Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan; and the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland. -- Guidebook copy for The Ghost of Architecture, July 13 to September 29, 2013.