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Sofu TESHIGAHARA (1900–1979) Untitled
Six-panel folding scre…
See original version (French)
299
-
Sofu TESHIGAHARA (1900–1979) Untitled
Six-panel folding scre…
See original version (French)
Estimate €12,000 - €18,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Sofu TESHIGAHARA (1900–1979)
Untitled
Six-panel folding screen
Artist’s seal in the bottom right-hand corner
173 x 364 cm in total
Condition Report:
minor damage to the bottom right-hand corner of the second panel.
a few surface scratches
stains on the reverse of the screen on the silk, likely inherent to the work.
Expert: Cabinet CHANOIT
Biography of Sofu Teshigahara:
Birth — Born on 28 December 1900 in Tokyo, Japan, into a modest family.
Artistic training — He studied painting and calligraphy before devoting himself to ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), which he learnt from his father.
Foundation of the Sōgetsu School — In 1927, he founded the Sōgetsu School, breaking with the rigid conventions of traditional ikebana to promote a free, modern and creative approach.
Revolutionary philosophy — His credo became famous: ‘Ikebana can be practised by anyone, anywhere, with any material.’ In doing so, he opened up the art of flower arranging to the use of unconventional materials such as metal, plastic, stone and glass.
Multidisciplinary artist — Beyond ikebana, he also excelled in sculpture, painting, ceramics and calligraphy, creating monumental works exhibited all over the world.
International renown — From the 1930s onwards, he developed an international career, exhibiting notably in São Paulo, Paris, Milan, New York, Venice and Berlin, as well as in Canada, Russia and Australia.
1954 – Participated in the quadricentenary celebrations in São Paulo
1955–1956: solo exhibitions in Paris and Tokyo
1957: Milan Triennale
1959–1961: solo exhibitions in New York (Martha Jackson Gallery) and Paris (Stadler Gallery)
1960 Awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government and exhibited in Venice in ‘Art and Nature’
1961 Awarded the Legion of Honour by France
1962 Major exhibition at the Petit Palais
1963 Solo exhibition in Tokyo. And exhibited at the Grand Palais in ‘Great Masters of Contemporary Art’.
1965 Exhibited at the Israel Museum
1966 Major solo exhibition in Tokyo
1967 ‘The Sculpture of Sofu Teshigahara’ at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
1968 Major solo exhibition in Moscow, Sochi, Leningrad and Kiev
1969 Solo exhibition at the Galerie Beurdeley in Paris and at the Musée de l’Athénée in Geneva
1971 Solo exhibition at the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp
1998–1999 ‘Sogetsu and his contemporaries’, at the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History and the Chiba City Art Museum
2001 ‘Sofu Teshigahara in the Era of the Post-War Avant-Garde’, at the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
Through his international activities, he has made a significant contribution to the recognition of ikebana as a contemporary art form in its own right.
Monumental sculptures — He created imposing installations made of bamboo and steel for public spaces, notably at the Sōgetsu School’s headquarters in Tokyo, the Sogetsu Kaikan, designed by Kenzo Tange.
Family legacy — His son, Hiroshi Teshigahara, an internationally renowned filmmaker and director of the film *Woman in the Dunes*, later took over as head of the Sōgetsu School.
Recognition — Awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, he is now regarded as one of the most influential Japanese artists of the 20th century.
Death — He passed away on 5 September 1979 in Tokyo, leaving behind a school whose influence remains considerable throughout the world.
A leading figure in 20th-century Japanese art, Sofu Teshigahara is universally recognised as the great master of ikebana, the art of flower arranging practised in Japan for centuries.
As the founder of the Sōgetsu school, he profoundly revitalised the discipline by infusing it with unprecedented creative freedom and bringing it closer to modern art movements. He exhibited for the first time as a sculptor at the Bridgestone Museum in Tokyo in 1957, and subsequently gained recognition in the West thanks to the French art critic and curator Michel Tapié, who organised his first solo exhibition in Europe at the Stadler Gallery in Paris in 1959. In personal notes written during his first trip to Japan in 1957, Tapié enthused:
‘When I first met [Teshigahara], I sensed that I was in the presence of one of those exceptional creative talents, capable of presenting his work to the world. This kind of creativity is rare. After Picasso, only Pollock’s work has impressed me as much.’²
Alongside his floral work, Teshigahara developed a body of sculptural work of remarkable diversity. He created sculptures in stone and wood, using trunks, roots and twisted branches whose dynamic, almost baroque forms seem to transcend the models of nature itself. Some of his creations combine wood with metal cladding, notably copper or aluminium, in a subtle dialogue between organic matter and industrial modernity. ‘The Japanese public regards Teshigahara’s sculptures as ikebana; perhaps we should regard them as sculptures,’ remarked the famous critic Michel Tapié.
Some of the screens on display bear witness to his exceptional mastery of the calligraphic gesture: large characters unleash their energy to the point of verging on abstraction, transforming the surface into a veritable space for pictorial creation. Teshigahara thus practises calligraphy on a monumental scale, moving through the space he covers with a generous network of lines, walking like Pollock across the canvas or fabric laid directly on the floor with his gigantic brush. He draws his inspiration from the great themes of the Japanese landscape, from Mount Fuji to vast seascapes, but also appears to be influenced by the Japanese Gutai movement. His gold-ground folding screens are among the most sought-after by collectors.
His ink and watercolour works, meanwhile, reveal a more contemplative and highly gestural sensibility.
This collection of screens, sculptures and works on paper thus offers a particularly comprehensive insight into the artistic richness of Sofu Teshigahara, whose work lies at the crossroads of Japanese tradition and the international avant-garde.
His works have been collected by leading figures such as the artist Antoni Tapiès, the critic Michel Tapie, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the French Embassy in Japan, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and numerous public and private collections in Australia, Israel, Italy, the United States and Japan.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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