Hiroshi Sugimoto Lot n° 19

Hiroshi Sugimoto (1948) - Elizabeth Taylor, 1994 Vintage gelatin silver print applied on original cardboard 19.2 x 23.8 in. (20 x 25.8 in. cardboard ; 16.6 x 21.3 in. picture) Edition 3 of 25 Signed in pencil on the cardboard recto and title, date, edition ad signature in blind stamp on the white inferior recto margin Framed PROVENANCE Hemphill Gallery, Washington "If this photograph seems realistic to you, you should consider what it means to be alive here and now" says Hiroshi Sugimoto about portraits, such as this one that possess a realism that has something disquieting about it because only later, when comparing dates, you realise that he could not have been standing in front of the people he photographed. They are, in fact, copies exhibited at Madame Tussaud's Museum. But the relationship between reality and its representation, between being and appearance, is not the only element that emerges in the works of the great Japanese photographer whose aesthetics stem from studies of classical German philosophy. The reference to the canons of Renaissance portraiture and the extremely rigorous care of the black and white print are very much present in this very fine work.