HIROSHI
SENJU
HIROSHI
SENJU
We are pleased to present a new collection of Waterfall paintings by Hiroshi Senju. For the first time, the artist takes us behind his cascading curtains of water, directing our gaze toward the beauty of the natural world beyond the falls. you see the world from the inside “ When of a waterfall, the soft hues of spring
flowers will be seen through the falling water as a field of colors. In the same way, summer is the harmony of various greens. Autumn is the color of leaves that become more brilliant just before they fall. In winter, there may be a sense of loneliness after everything has fallen, yet at the same time, there is a feeling of renewal.
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—Hiroshi Senju
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Hiroshi Senju is widely known for his black-and-white Waterfalls, but his skills as a colorist are clearly evident in this new body of work. In the four paintings on the following pages inspired by the four seasons, nuanced shifts in tone and shade not only evoke the sensation of falling water, but the essence of winter, spring, summer and fall.
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021 Pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 71.6 x 89.5 inches/182 x 227 cm
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021 Pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 71.6 x 89.5 inches/182 x 227 cm
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021 Pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 71.6 x 89.5 inches/182 x 227 cm
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021 Pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 71.6 x 89.5 inches/182 x 227 cm
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In the 16-foot-wide painting that is the ceterpiece of this new body of work, the artist brings together the colors from the four seasons paintings in a sweeping, multi-panel panorama. Liquid ribbons of red, gold, purple, blue and green appear between towering columns, as if a mist of water droplets is fracturing the light into a spectrum of color like a prism. At the base of the waterfall, the colors coalesce into a deep blue-black pool that alludes to the depth below the surface.
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021, pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 76.3 x 191.4 inches/194 x 486 cm 22
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Distinct color fields define another small group of works. The relationship between the pair of colors in the background strikes a beautiful balance, yet it’s the inclusion of the third color in the foreground that introduces an unexpected harmony. When selecting the combinations, rather than draw on a specific theme, Senju relied on instinct.
“The colors called for one another.”
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021 Pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 63.8 x 51.3 inches/162 x 131 cm
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021, pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 63.8 x 51.3 inches/162 x 131 cm 29
Waterfall on Colors, 2021 Pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 63.8 x 51.3 inches/162 x 131 cm
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Waterfall on Colors, 2021 Pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 51.3 x 51.3 inches/130 x 130 cm
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Rounding out the range of colors and mediums in this new body of work are three luminous, warm gray Waterfalls made with platinum pigment, a material Senju began using in 2020 for a small group of Cliff paintings. He was so taken by its refined yet understated nature that he incorporated it into the background of a handful of new Waterfalls, in which the platinum’s luster plays off the soft white oyster-shell pigment used to articulate waterfall itself. Senju purposefully included these subtle, monochrome paintings not as a foil to the more colorful works presented alongside them, but as a way to encourages us to see beauty in diversity and in the world as it is.
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Waterfall, 2021 Platinum and natural pigment on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 44.1 x 57.3 inches/112 x 145.5 cm
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Waterfall, 2021 Platinum and natural pigment on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 63.8 x 51.3 inches/162 x 131 cm
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Waterfall, 2021 Platinum and natural pigment on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 35.2 x 57.3 inches/89.4 x 145.5 cm
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Waterfall, 2021 Natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 63.8 x 51.3 inches/162 x 131 cm
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HIROSHI
SENJU
This new body of work follows an extremely productive period for Senju. In 2020, he completed several highprofile public projects, including two monumental paintings commissioned to mark the 1,200th anniversary of Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a 20.4-meter-wide byobu or folding screen at Tokyo International (Haneda) airport, Terminal 2. His most recent commission is a site-specific fluorescent Waterfall at the Art Institute of Chicago. Hiroshi Senju was the first Asian artist to receive an Honorable Mention Award at the Venice Biennale (1995), and has participated in numerous exhibitions including The New Way of Tea, curated by Alexandra Munroe, at the Japan Society and the Asia Society in New York, 2002; Paintings on Fusuma at the Tokyo National Museum, 2003; and Frontiers Reimagined at the 2015 Venice Biennale. He was recently awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation from the Japanese government for contributions to art. In 2017, he was honored with the Isamu Noguchi Award and in 2021 he was awarded the 77th Imperial Prize and the Japan Art Academy Prize from the Japan Art Academy. Public installations include seventy-seven murals at Juko-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, and monumental waterfalls at Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). The Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island houses two large-scale installations. The artist’s two monumental paintings at the Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan—a Waterfall and a Cliff—were on view in major museums throughout Japan prior to their installation and consecration in October 2020. Senju’s work is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Art Institute of Chicago; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; the Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo; Tokyo University of the Arts; and the Kushiro Art Museum, Hokkaido. In 2009, Skira Editore published a monograph of his work titled Hiroshi Senju. The Hiroshi Senju Museum Karuizawa in Japan opened in 2011. Born in Tokyo, 1958 | Lives and works in New York
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S U N DAR AM TAG O R E GAL L E R I E S N EW YOR K Chelsea: 542 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001 • tel 212 677 4520 Madison Avenue: 1100 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028 • tel 212 288 2889 gallery@sundaramtagore.com
SI NGAPOR E 5 Lock Road 01-05, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108933 • tel 65 6694 3378 singapore@sundaramtagore.com
LON DON 4 Cromwell Place, London, SW7 2JE Opening 2021 President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Senior Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Singapore: Melanie Taylor Director, New York: Kathryn McSweeney Registrar: Julia Occhiogrosso Designer: Russell Whitehead Editorial support: Kieran Doherty
WWW.SU N DARAMTAGOR E.COM Text © 2021 Sundaram Tagore Gallery Photographs © 2021 Hiroshi Senju All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover: Waterfall on Colors (detail), 2021, pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 76.3 x 191.4 inches/194 x 486 cm