Yasuhiro Ishimoto (1921-2012)
Chicago, 1950s
(Demolition Crane)
Gelatin silver print, printed later
Signed in graphite on verso
Paper size: 11 x 14 inches
Provenance: Private Collection, NY; Edwynn Houk Gallery, NY; Lawrence Miller Gallery, NY; The Artist
Condition: Pristine
YI-12
Retail: $6500
Retail Prices per Stephen Daiter
Gallery, Chicago & Vintage Works on Paper, Chalfont, PA:
Modern prints: $6500
Vintage prints: $10,000-15,000
Short Bio
Yasuhiro Ishimoto (Japanese American, 1921- 2012) was
born in San Francisco and raised Kochi City, Japan. In 1939, due to concerns of
him being drafted he returned to the US where he studied agriculture
at the University of California (1940-42). He moved to Chicago in 1944 and
began to study architecture at Northwestern University in 1946 when he met photographer
Harry Shigeta and took up photography seriously. Two years later Ishimoto
transferred to the Institute of Design where he studied with Harry Callahan,
Aaron Siskind, and Gordon Coster(1948-52). In 1961 he returned to Japan
(Tokyo), where he has lived ever since. Ishimoto showed his devotion to
his adopted city, Chicago, in his book, Chicago,
Chicago (Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 1969). This book is often regarded as
Ishimoto's most personal statement - his bold use of contrast, the design of
the frame, and the influence of his studies in architecture define his Chicago.
Ishimoto has published many books and exhibited widely throughout Japan and the
US. In 1999 he was the subject of a career retrospective at the Art
Institute of Chicago. – Stephen Daiter Gallery
Solo Exhibitions
Art Institute of Chicago, 1960.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1961.
"Den
Shingonin Ryōkai Mandala" / "Mandala of Two Worlds". Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo. 1977.
"Yasuhiro
Ishimoto: Remembrance of Things Present". National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1996.
"Ishimoto
Yasuhiro-ten: Shikago, Tōkyō" /"Yasuhiro Ishimoto: Chicago and
Tokyo". Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo. 1998.
“Newman and
Ishimoto”, Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago, 1999
"Yasuhiro
Ishimoto: A Tale of Two Cities". Art Institute of Chicago, 1999.
"Yasuhiro
Ishimoto: Mandalas of the Two Worlds at the Kyoo Gokokuji". National Museum of Art, Osaka. 1999.
“Yasuhiro
Ishimoto: Selected Works”, Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago 2000
"Yasuhiro
Ishimoto Photographs: Traces of Memory". Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000–2001.
"Ishimoto
Yasuhiro Shashinten 1946–2001" (1946–2001) / "Yasuhiro
Ishimoto". The Museum of Art, Kochi, April–May 2001.
“Marvin E.
Newman and Yasuhiro Ishimoto”, Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago 2009
Joint exhibitions
"The Family of Man". Museum of Modern Art, 1955
"New
Japanese Photography". Museum of Modern Art, 1974
Bio by Wikipedia
Yasuhiro Ishimoto (Ishimoto Yasuhiro or sometimes
Ishimoto Taihaku, June 14, 1921 – February 6, 2012) was an influential Japanese-American photographer.
Ishimoto
was born on June 14, 1921 in San Francisco, CA, where his
parents were farmers. In 1924, the family left the United States and returned
to his parents' hometown within present-day Tosa, in Kochi Prefecture, Japan. After Ishimoto graduated from Kōchi Agricultural High School, he returned to
the United States in 1939, studying architecture at Northwestern University in Chicago for two years. Though he did not complete this program, architecture would hold
an important place in his photography.
From 1942
to 1944, he was interned with other Japanese Americans at the Amache Internment Camp (also known as Granada Relocation Center) in Colorado. It was here that
he began to learn photography.
Returning
to Chicago, in 1946 Ishimoto joined the Photo Dearborn club for amateur
filmmakers and photographers there. He enrolled in the Photography Department
of the Chicago Institute of Design in 1948 (later the Institute of Design of
the Illinois Institute of Technology) and studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, graduating in 1952. During this time, he won numerous photography awards,
including the Moholy-Nagy Prize, which he won twice.
Ishimoto
returned to Japan to live in 1953 and that same year, on a commission from New
York's Museum of Modern Art, he photographed Katsura Imperial Villa (Katsura rikyū) in Kyoto, working in black-and-white. Work from
this assignment eventually was published as the book, Katsura: Tradition and
Creation in Japanese Architecture (sometimes shortened to Katsura) in 1960. The
book has texts by Walter Gropius and Tange Kenzo.
Ishimoto's
work was chosen by Edward Steichen to appear in the "Family of Man" exhibition
and catalogue at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955, and Steichen also selected
his work for a three-person exhibition in 1961.
From 1958 to 1961, Ishimoto lived and worked in Chicago on a Minolta fellowship. His photographs from this time, mostly street scenes, were eventually published in 1969 as Chicago, Chicago. After having returned to Japan in 1961, Ishimoto became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1969. During the 1960s, he taught photography at Kuwasawa Design School, the Tokyo College of Photography and, between 1966 and 1971, at Tokyo Zokei University . . .
Ishimoto
participated in many exhibitions, including New Japanese Photography at the
Museum of Modern Art in 1974, solo shows in 1960 and 1999 at the Art Institute of Chicago, a retrospective in 1989–1990 at Seibu Museum of Art in Tokyo, and an exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, in 1996.
Ishimoto's many awards include winning the Young Photographer's Contest, "Life" magazine (1950); the photographer of the year award, Japan Photo Critics Association (1957); the Mainichi Art Award (1970); the annual award (1978, 1990) and distinguished contribution award (1991) of the Photographic Society of Japan; and governmental medals of honour (1983, 1993). In 1996 the Japanese government named Ishimoto a Man of Cultural Distinction, an honour that includes a lifelong stipend. In 2004 Ishimoto donated his archive of seven thousand images, valued at 1.4 billion yen, to the Museum of Art, Kochi. In English, Yasuhiro Ishimoto signed his name "Yas Ishimoto". --wikipedia