Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/shigeo-anzai-24656" aria-label="More by Shigeo Anzai" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Shigeo Anzai</a>
Noriyuki Haraguchi Fukagawa Tokyo April 23 1978
Presented anonymously 2016
architecture
arts
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
documentary
emotions, concepts and ideas
exhibition: Noriyuki Haraguuchi, Fukagawa, 1978
fine art and design, named works
formal qualities
Haraguchi, Noriyuki, installation
history
industrial
Japan
natural phenomena
objects
oil
photographic
places
river
structure
Tokyo, Fukagawa
water: inland
<p>This black and white photograph by Japanese photographer Anzaï Shigeo documents a work of art by Japanese sculptor and installation artist Noriyuki Haraguchi (born 1946). As the title indicates, it was taken in Fukagawa, a historic district of Tokyo, on 23 April 1978. The print was made by the artist at some point between 1978 and 1990 and is signed and inscribed by Anzaï on the front. It shows one of the early oil-pool installations for which Haraguchi became known and is one of many photographs taken by Anzaï that document ephemeral installations created by artists associated with the Japanese art movement Mono-ha (‘The School of Things’). Haraguchi made his first oil pool for <span>documenta 6</span>, Kassel in 1977, and has since built numerous oil pools. The work consists of a rectangular steel frame, serving as a container for highly reflective, opaque waste oil. Anzaï photographed the oil pool within its environmental context: outside, next to a river and a large scaffolding-like steel architecture. Not only are the oil pools site-specific works, their shiny surfaces also reflect the forms and conditions of their location. Thus the steel grids reflected in the dark oil become a major part of both Haraguchi’s sculpture and Anzaï’s photograph.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
Noriyuki Haraguchi, Fukagawa, Tokyo, April 23, 1978
image: 138 × 170 mm
Presented anonymously 2016
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<p>This black and white photograph by Japanese photographer Anzaï Shigeo documents a work of art by Japanese sculptor and installation artist Noriyuki Haraguchi (born 1946). As the title indicates, it was taken in Fukagawa, a historic district of Tokyo, on 23 April 1978. The print was made by the artist at some point between 1978 and 1990 and is signed and inscribed by Anzaï on the front. It shows one of the early oil-pool installations for which Haraguchi became known and is one of many photographs taken by Anzaï that document ephemeral installations created by artists associated with the Japanese art movement Mono-ha (‘The School of Things’). Haraguchi made his first oil pool for <i>documenta 6</i>, Kassel in 1977, and has since built numerous oil pools. The work consists of a rectangular steel frame, serving as a container for highly reflective, opaque waste oil. Anzaï photographed the oil pool within its environmental context: outside, next to a river and a large scaffolding-like steel architecture. Not only are the oil pools site-specific works, their shiny surfaces also reflect the forms and conditions of their location. Thus the steel grids reflected in the dark oil become a major part of both Haraguchi’s sculpture and Anzaï’s photograph.</p>
<p>Anzaï began his artistic practice as a painter, moving towards photography in the late 1960s. From 1970 he began documenting artists and their work through photography, both in Japan and internationally. His photographs provide historical documentation of important works of art, major exhibitions – such as the 10th Tokyo Biennale 1970 – and avant-garde artists in their original contexts (a group of such photographs is in Tate’s collection; see Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/anzai-giuseppe-penone-the-10th-tokyo-biennale-70-between-man-and-matter-p14404" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14404</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/anzai-sol-lewitt-the-10th-tokyo-biennale-70-between-man-and-matter-p14418" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14418</span></a>). Anzaï established himself as the foremost photographer of the Japanese art movement Mono-ha (‘The School of Things’), and a number of early Mono-ha installations by artists such as Lee Ufan, Haraguchi Noriyuki or Suga Kishio survive only through reconstructions or in Anzaï’s photographs. However, his images are not only important art historical documents, but also carefully composed works of art in their own right that evoke the experimental atmosphere of the cultural scene in the 1970s in Japan and beyond.</p>
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<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>
<i>Recording on Contemporary Art by Shigeo Anzaï 1970–1999</i>, exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Art Osaka, November–December 2000.<br/>
<i>Shigeo Anzaï Index</i>, exhibition catalogue, White Rainbow, London 2015.<br/>‘Interview: Shigeo Anzaï and Lena Fritsch’, 8 November 2016, <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/research/research-centres/asia/research-resource/interview-shigeo-anzai-and-lena-fritsch">http://www.tate.org.uk/research/research-centres/asia/research-resource/interview-shigeo-anzai-and-lena-fritsch</a>, accessed 8 February 2018.</p>
<p>Lena Fritsch<br/>April 2016, updated February 2018</p>
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Summary
2018-03-08T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
architecture arts cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents documentary emotions, concepts and ideas exhibition: Noriyuki Haraguuchi, Fukagawa, 1978 fine art and design, named works formal qualities Haraguchi, Noriyuki, installation history industrial Japan natural phenomena objects oil photographic places river structure Tokyo, Fukagawa water: inland