| About SUGANUMA GALLERY |
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It’s been almost 30 years since I have first started my art school in
Asagaya district in Tokyo. Since then I’ve been pursuing my career as
an artist in my own way.
I have been trying hard to be in tune with free spirit, free from any restrictions, and constantly place myself in an environment which enables me to make the most of my career as an artist, if it meant to go with a very little money. I just wanted to live my own life and that’s how I have been to this day. Looking back now though, my life style may have been rather reckless, and even suicidal. Nevertheless, I have been able to continue it for so long, it may well prove that it is my own destiny.
Sure, I like money, but I’m not good at making them. The idea of owning a lot of them being an evil clings tight to my back. What I mean is that I have no doubt that what we call ‘deity of poverty’ resides in my body. It seems everyone who befriended me also quite close to this ‘deity of poverty’, if not certain how close they are to him.
Apart from my poor Japanese friends, there are quite a few foreign friends with the similar belief whom I acquainted with when I traveled abroad. Irving Stettner, an American painter and a poet, who is the author of “Beggars in Paradise” & other work, is one of them. A well known writer, Henry Miller, for whom Irving-san had a great admiration, also chose a life of an artist which consequently forced him to live a life of dire poverty, especially in his Paris days as it is well described in his autobiographical novel, Tropic of Cancer. Irving-san was a close friend of late Henry Miller, and the collection of Miller’s letters to him have been published by New Direction, entitled From your Capricorn Friend in 1984 .
Although I didn’t read Miller’s work before I met Irving-san, as I deepened my friendship with him, I became interested in reading Miller naturally. And I ended up reading most of his books afterwards. They gave a strong impact on me, yes, and besides his magnanimous personality I feel, I say that his unique charm is just indescribable.
There are several of those whom I consider as friends for life, such as Chuang-tzu, Preist Rinzai Gigen, Ryokan, Sengai, and others. And I believe that both Miller and Irving-san possess the belief in life which is quite close to the one of the great figures whom I just mentioned. As for Miller, I feel that more of us are obliged to read what he has written because of the strong truth comes out through and through in his writings which certainly should not be neglected by all of us who live in this crazy world today.
Currently I handle the art work of Irving-san and also the work of his friend, Tommy Trantino and both of which Henry Miller happened to acclaim highly for. I’m eager to show their work to many people as possible in the world. At the same time, I’m willing to show the work of other artists who also happened to be my good friends.
This is why I opened up the Gallery Suganuma on the website, and also in a small art gallery space attached to my art school in Asagaya, Tokyo. All the artists and their work exhibited here are quite unique as you may have seen them in our website. They create an unusual, exhilarating atmosphere when they are shown next to each other in the same room. So for those who love art and happen to collect them, this place certainly is the one among many which would stimulate and overwhelm you by their power, I’m quite certain. And I feel that it will remind you the fact that the art itself will help us enrich our lives, and at the same time make our society a more livable and meaningful place.
So why not visit us and experience their art! Feel free to visit our gallery any time! Please call us prior to your visit so we are sure to be there to meet you!
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| Sojiro Suganuma, director |
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