Commissioned in 1997 by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, for the exhibition At the End of the Century: One Hundred Years of Architecture, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s architectural studies took inspiration from early 20th-century Modernism and traced the movement’s history through the examination of its structural record. Sourcing images of iconic buildings taken by other photographers, Sugimoto assessed their common viewpoint then adopted and reimagined the perspective. By extending the focal length, Sugimoto blurred the clean lines of Minoru Yamasaki’s World Trade Center, reducing the architecture to its essence.
Lots 31-34 are on offer from the former owners of the Michelin-star-recipient Gotham Bar & Grill in Manhattan. The five works, including the present lot, were all on display in the dining room up until the restaurant’s closing in 2020.
Hiroshi Sugimoto's work examines the concepts of time, space and the metaphysics of human existence through breathtakingly perfect images of theaters, mathematical forms, wax figures and seascapes. His 8 x 10 inch, large-format camera and long exposures give an almost eerie serenity to his images, treating the photograph as an ethereal time capsule and challenging its associations of the 'instant.'
In his famed Seascapes, Sugimoto sublimely captures the nature of water and air, sharpening and blurring the elements together into a seamless, formless entity. This reflection of the human condition and its relationship with time follows through his exploration of historical topics and timeless beauty as he uniquely replicates the world around us.
