1948 Born in Tokyo, Japan
1970 Graduated from Saint Paul's
University,Tokyo
1974 Graduated from Art Center
College of Design, Los Angeles
1974 Moved to New York
Awards
2000 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts,
Parsons School of Design, New
School University, New York,
USA
2001 Hasselblad Foundation
International Award in
IPhotography, Göteborg, Sweden
2006 Top Prize at Madrid's
PHotoEspaña, Spain
2009 Awarded for Praemium Imperiale
-painting category, Tokyo, Japan
2010 Awarded the Medal with Purple
Ribbon, Japan
2013 Awarded the Ordre des Arts et
des Lettres, France
1948
Sugimoto was born in Okachimachi, Tokyo. The family lived in the area which had been burn down during the war, with billboard buildings lining along the street. These two-storey buildings, with façade covered by copper plates, were composed of wood structure and mortar as part of the renovation program implemented after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. Lanes and alleys in this area were all connected as a labyrinth, and Hiroshi Sugimoto grew up and played in this labyrinth-like urban space.
1955
At second grade, Sugimoto and the family moved close to Sugamo Shinden station, where streetcars of Toden Arakawa Line still passes through until today. There were many open spaces in the neighborhood, so Sugimoto could chase lizards and observe the nature everyday.
1960
Sugimoto entered Rikkyo Junior High School. He became interested in literature after reading Unterm Rad, a fiction by German writer Hermann Hesse, recommended to him by his teacher Shunji Ito. His interest in photography was ignited in the same year when his father sent him a 6X7 mid-sized camera Mamiya 6, with which his obsession with railway photography began. In his second year in junior high school, he changed a warehouse into a darkroom where he could develop and enlarge photos. He learned photography all by himself.
1966
Sugimoto entered the Department of Economics, Rikkyo University, where he studied with Professor Takahito Sakasai. He was greatly inspired by Takahito's materialist conception of history, and influenced by Professor Tatsuo Minagawa in music and Professor Takeshi Muramatsu in French literature. Sugimoto had planned to take Ukichi Tagichi, an economist in the beginning of the Meiji period, as the topic of his graduation dissertation. However, he graduated without a dissertation nor a ceremony, as the university was closed due to a struggle for security procedure in 1970. While the campus was in a chaos, Sugimoto participated several protests against the Vietnam War. When the student group he belonged to negotiated with the professoriate, Sugimoto saw the staunchness of Professor Muramatsu when the latter was arguing for the right wing. He had new understanding about the aesthetic ideals of right-wingers.
1970
Sugimoto entered the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and majored in photography. Because of his self-study, he skipped to third grade , studying 16mm films and C-Print.
1972
Sugimoto took a year off and traveled around the world as a backpacker. He boarded the Siberia Railway from Nakhodka, passing through Moscow, and traveled around East European countries. With his own eyes, he witnessed the complete failure of communism and was strongly affected.
1974
After graduating from the Art Center College of Design, Sugimoto drove across the US and moved to New York. Aiming at becoming a commercial photographer, he served as an assistant for several photographers, but stopped shortly after he realized that it was not the right path for him. Meanwhile, he saw solo exhibitions of Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly and others, and was profoundly inspired. Sugimoto decided to take the path of modern arts and become a photographer, although his works had not been highly valued at the time.
1975
Sugimoto started to photograph Dioramas and the Theaters series. He chose to use 8x10 large format camera, and referred to Ansel Adams' books for developing and printing techniques, a field in which he eventually created his own unique formula and method. He met Tomio Miki this year, and they found a congenial bond.
1976
With Dioramas newly-completed, Sugimoto was considering where and to whom he should present his first work. To see how far he could go, Sugimoto brought Dioramas to the ultimate land in the field, the photography department of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. It caught the attention of Assistant Curator Maria Hamburg, and John Szarkowski, Director of Photography, decided to procure the work as part of the museum's collection.
1977
Sugitomo acquired permanent residency of the US. He was summoned by the US embassy in Tokyo, and went back to Japan after being abroad for a long time. Through the referral of Tomio Miki, Sugitomo showed his works to Kusuo Shimizu of Minami Gallery. Shimizu immediately decided to organize a solo exhibition for Sugimoto, which opened two weeks later, featuring only two pieces. One of them was bought by art critic Yoshiaki Tono at the opening of the exhibition, and the other was bought by a passing monk the day after. Through the referral of Yoshiaki Tono, Sugimoto's works were introduced to Leo Castelli Gallery, an influential gallery in New York. Leo Castelli himself further referred him to Sonnabend Gallery, owned by Castelli's ex-wife. Thus Sugimoto became Sonnabend Gallery's artist.
1979
Sugimoto's wife Kinue opened a shop MINGEI in Soho district, New York. She made use of her experience in styling at Shiseido's department of promotion, and purchased and displayed ancient Japanese folk handicrafts in the store. Due to a lack of fund, Sugimoto single-handedly completed the shop's interior design and construction. After the store opened, the New York Times did a full-page coverage on the shop one week later. All stocks were sold out instantly, and Sugimoto had to fly to Japan to procure more goods on behalf of his wife.
1980
Sugimoto received the Guggenheim Fellowships. In addition to photograph Theaters around the US, he started to shoot Seascapes as well.
1981
Sugimoto held the first solo exhibition in New York at Sonnabend Gallery.
1982
Sugimoto received the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). On his journeys for collecting ancient artworks, he also visited historic and renowned temples all around Japan, expanding his understanding about Japanese history in art, religion and architecture. He continued to deepen his research in ancient arts whiling creating his own works during the 1980s, and found a solid connection between the Japanese spirit and his works.
1983
Sugimoto's first daughter Satoko was born. MINGEI was renamed as SUGIMOTO WORKS OF ART, as the artworks presented by the store were no longer limited to folk handicrafts. The company remade itself as a manufacturer of modern art and dealer of ancient artworks. More artists became the company's customers: Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and Isamu Noguchi were the most frequent visitors.
1988
Sugimoto organized a solo exhibition at Exibit Space, Saga Cho. In the same year, he received Mainichi Art Award.
1995
Sugimoto organized a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, making his works an instant hit. After long deliberation, he decided to stop the dealings of ancient arts and focus on the creation of modern arts. But he continued to buy ancient artworks as a means of self-education. He collected ancient artworks with the revenue made by selling his own pieces, and how much he spent was how much he earned.
1997
Sugimoto was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, to participate in AT THE END OF THE CENTURY ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF ARCHITECTURE, an overview of architecture in the 20th century. Although hesitated in the beginning, he proposed a new technique, "twice-as-infinity," to photograph renowned modernist constructions. The photos were shot out of focus intentionally, to preserve only the powerful constructions, so that the initial attempt of the designer would emerge. He spent four years to photograph buildings around the world, and reviewed the modern era through the history of modern architecture.
2001
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, organized an exhibition SUGIMOTO ARCHITECTURE . Sugimoto's survey on modern architecture drew an end, and his photo catalogue of Architecture was published by Distributed Arts Publishers (D.A.P), Inc.
2002
Sugimoto designed his first architectural work, Go-Oh Shrine of Naoshima. Yu Kimura assisted him in the design.
2001 - 2005年
Sugimoto found a 220-square-meter space in Shirokane, Tokyo, where he installed Colors of Shadow. He painted the space with white mortar and put an optical prism in the room.
Sugimoto designed Gallery Koyanagi.
2008
Sugimoto designed Miyabi Setsu Gatōdo.
2009
Sugimoto received Praemium Imperiale -painting category, Tokyo, Japan
Sugimoto designed London Gallery.
Sugimoto designed IZU PHOTO MUSEUM in Nagaizumi, Shizuoka. Because he had to sign a business contract with Kajima Corporation, he founded a design studio, Shinsozai Kenkyūjo, with Tomoyuki Sakakida.
2010
Sugimoto received the Medal with Purple Ribbon, Japan.
2011
Sugimito founded Odawara Art Foundation, a public interest organization. He staged Sugimoto Bunraku: Dekunobo irinasake Sonezaki shinju tsuketari kannon meguri ("Kannon Pilgrimage" from The Love Suicide at Sonezaki) in Kanagawa Arts Theatre.
Sugimoto explored new rock-filling techniques in quarries of Rushan City, Shandong ProvinceChina, for a project to shed more artistic light on the Obayashi building (temporary name) in Aoyama.
Sugimoto co-designed a pavilion dedicated to his own works in Marrakesh Museum in Morocco with David Chipperfield.
Sugimoto designed teahouse Imameido in New York.
Sugimoto acquired a base land around 16,529 square meters in Enoura, Odawara City, as Odawara Art Foundation planned to build a Hiroshi Sugimoto Museum. The museum would include a thatch-roofed Noh theater, counterweight Noh stage made with optical glass, and teahouse Tenshō-an. Constructions from Muromachi period would be moved in, and gardens with landscaping stones made from the cornerstones of Gangoji Temple of the Tempyō Era would be built. The museum, an artistic piece as well as a construction, will be a building complex composed of land arts.
