The Artist Who Bends Photography Into Many Shapes

New York Times

3 days ago

When Kunié Sugiura set out to make life-size photograms of human subjects, she put a new spin on what it means to be 'an artist's artist.' A photogram is a direct image that is made on photosensitive paper without the use of a camera. Typically, small objects are displayed. Sugiura went larger and bolder. She asked other artists to pose, including Joan Jonas, Bill T. Jones, Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama and Jasper Johns.
Beginning in 1999, working in enclosures that she sheathed in black plastic to reduce reflections, she made some photograms into full-length portraits, in four-panel composites that measured over six feet high.
'I happened to know Jasper, so I called and asked him, and he said, 'Next spring,'' Sugiura recalled in March, when I visited her apartment and studio in New York's Chinatown. She was preparing to ship a few laggard works to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for her first American retrospective exhibition, 'Kunié Sugiura: Photopainting,' on view through Sept. 14.
An elegant white-haired woman with gracefully erect posture and a dry wit, Sugiura, 82, cloaks an indomitable drive beneath a soft-spoken manner. 'At the end of spring, I called Jasper again and said, 'Can you do it?'' she continued. 'He said, 'Yes, if you come to Connecticut.'' She traveled to his home in Sharon, where he supplied her with a small shed and two assistants.
He asked how many photogram papers she intended to expose. 'I had eight, but I didn't want to seem greedy,' she recalled with a laugh. She used four, and he approved two. In a collaborative effort, for a portrait included in the SFMOMA show, he sat in profile and plunked his hand and arm on the same paper. To anyone familiar with Johns's work, the silhouette of his face and the trademark hand motif are instantly recognizable.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.