Willow Trees, c 1916-1923 Gelatin silver print, double mounted, 4.5 x 6.5" Taizo Kato The Modernist Eye Taizo Kato was a prolific Japanese-American photographer working in the Pictorialism tradition in Southern California through the early 1900's. His work emphasized the pastoral, soft-focus style that included qualities of suggestion and poetry, which spring naturally from the Japanese soul. A large number of his friends formed the Japanese Camera Pictorialists Club of California, and their modernistic ideas helped inspire the avant-garde of Europe, and even Edward Weston, who acknowledged their influence on his own work. "Pictorialism" is now remembered as the quaint, outmoded school championed by Alfred Steiglitz and the photo secessionist, but at the turn of the twentieth century it was all the rage, inspiring photographers of the day just as the work of the f64 group in California influenced photography for the next half century. Kato was one of the first among his peers to shift into modernism. Had he lived longer than his brief 36 years, he might be better remembered as a pioneering modernist photographer. White Room Gallery is excited to announce the discovery a portfolio of rare, vintage photographs by this early Pictorialist master. Kato, who died in 1924, left behind a body of work that is rich in tradition and exceptional in their emotional and romantic expression. His work, once seen in such publications as the 1923 American Annual Photo, have recently been displayed at the Boston University Art Gallery, and in the exhibition catalog "Pictorialism in California," published by the Getty and Huntington Museums. His photographs are representative of the resonant, influential, and enormously popular Pictorial movement, which is an important early chapter in the history of photography. Exhibition: June 5 - July 10, 2004 Gallery Hours: Tue-Sat 12pm - 6pm White Room Gallery 8810 Melrose Avenue USA-West Hollywood, CA 90069 Telephone +1 310-859-2402 Fax +1 310-859-0197 Email info@whiteroomgallery.com www.whiteroomgallery.com |
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