Hiroshi Sugimoto. Modern Times

5th June at the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice will mark the opening of the new solo exhibition featuring the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto (1948, Tokyo, Japan). 
On display in the Palazzetto Tito venue and curated by Filippo Maggia, the exhibition will offer a world premiere of new works by the Japanese artist, produced for the XIV Architecture Biennale, and dedicated to the icons of international architecture. 
The first Italian show offers an exclusive chance to admire 11 architectural photographs by the artist of famous international museums andwell-known landmarks.
On display in the six rooms of Palazzetto Tito, there are views of the Johnson Wax Building by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Einstein Tower by Erich Mendelsohn and the Monumentto the Fallen by the Futurist Antonio Sant'Elia, alongside the latest otherwise unseen works on two of the most important sites of contemporary art in the world: the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 
And it is on the latter building that the artist's gaze settles with particular attention, building an intricate network of interrelations between the original areas, planned in 1939 by Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone,and the recent renovations designed in 2004 by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi. 
These are in turn placed in comparison with the painting by Oskar Schlemmer 'Bauhaus Stairway' (1939) showing the steps in front of the entrance to the renowned Bauhaus School in Weimar. 
The selection of works on view continues the major theme first undertakenin the mid-'90s with the Architecture series, a rich set of works focusing on the icons of world architecture, including the Eiffel Tower, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the famous church by Le Corbusier, Notre-Dame-du-Haut. Breaking all the traditional rules of architectural photography, the artist creates images that are heavily blurred, and often shot from unusual vantage points. Instead of seeking the linearity of shapes and details capable of highlighting constructive beauty, the artist chooses amore evocative approach, dissolving the boundaries of time and memory, and investigating the very essence of places.
Born in Tokyo in 1948, Hiroshi Sugimoto is considered one of the most authoritative protagonists ofthe contemporary photography scene. Over his more than 35 years ofwork, the artist has fascinated the public around the world with hisflawless black & white images, and with a corpus of works thatreflect at the same time both his extraordinary passion for detailand his fascination with the paradoxes of time and human perception. A multifaceted figure, Sugimoto develops his artistic practices through photography, sculptural objects, architecture and experimental exhibition installations. His photographic studies often focus on the interplay between art, history, science and religion, combining Eastern philosophies with various elements of Westernculture. 
The works of Hiroshi Sugimoto have been displayed in major museums aroundt he world, including solo exhibitions at the Neue National galerie in Berlin (2008), at the de Young Museum in San Francisco (2007), at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. (2006), the Mori Art Museum inTokyo (2005), the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris (2004), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York (2000), and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York (1995). Sugimoto has won many awards, including the Hasselblad Award in 2001, 21st Praemium Imperiale in 2009, Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon by Japanese Government in 2010, the Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts etdes Lettres (The Other of Arts and Letters) by French Government in2013.
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Fondazione Fotografia of Modena, and precedes the retrospective that the Modenese foundation will dedicate to the artist in February 2015, which - along with the works on show in the Venice selection - will feature images from all the major series of his works. 

The show "Modern Times" is supported by the Japan Foundation.

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