Kishio Suga (b. 1944)

Kishio Suga is a central figure of Mono-ha, who studied under Yoshishige Saito at Tama Art University, and is acknowledged to be the most disciplined and long-standing adherent of the movement’s concept. His work shows an emphasis on the ‘situation’ over the ‘things’ themselves. His 1970 work, Unnamed Situation I featured two rectangular wood blocks of different lengths propping open two adjacent windows at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. When listing the components of the work he included not only ‘wood’ but ‘window, air, landscape, light’, thereby re-focussing attention on the entire situation, rather than a single, obvious component.1

After his emergence as a radical Mono-ha artist, Suga has continued to produce works addressing the themes of “Things” and “Space”. The works by Suga in this sale were executed in 1980s and formed of wood, metal and stone, the Mono-ha framework of minimal artistic intervention and personal expression is clearly evident.

Kishio Suga’s work has entered numerous museum collections including:
The Tate, London (go to http:/www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/suga-ren-shiki-tai-t13336/text-summary)
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (go to http:/search.artmuseums.go.jp/search_e/records.php?sakuhin=10627)
The National Museum of Art, Osaka (go to http:/search.artmuseums.go.jp/search_e/records.php?sakuhin=53533)
An exhibition titled Kishio Suga: Situated Latency, was held at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, January-March 2015. Go to http:/www.mot-art-museum.jp/eng/exhibition/kishiosuga.html

1. Simon Groom, Encountering Mono-ha, exhibition catalogue, Mono-ha – school of things, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 2001), p. 13