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Susumu Shingu

1937 (Osaka (Japon))
Living in : Sanda (Japon).
Working in : Sanda (Japon).
Artist's webSite
Artist's gallery

Born in Osaka in 1937, he began studying oil painting in Tokyo but, he says, "I think I heard the voice of Leonardo calling me at that time. And in 1960, he left for Rome, where he discovered "the ancient masters spreading the wings of creation beyond the simple domains of the Renaissance and the Baroque". The heights reached by these geniuses dissuaded him from pursuing the path of painting. "So he began to create three-dimensional objects," says Véronique Jaeger, his gallery owner in Paris, "and one day he hung one from a tree branch to photograph it. The wind makes it move. For Shingu, it was a revelation. In 1997, the critic Pierre Restany described this episode as "an experience similar to that of the apple for Newton, since the object floating in the wind made him aware of the energy that the immaterial void can bring to his art... this cosmic void that underlies the awareness of our experience of the universe. From this decisive experience, Shingu's desire to create mobile sculptures that move with the wind and water was born. "Leonardo gave me clues as well as advice.


Portrait
Domaine national de Chambord - Olivier Marchant



Artist's issues