SOFU TESHIGAHARA | Dragon (folding screen)

Private Collection
Christie's, Amsterdam, 3 December 2002, Lot 106
Private Collection
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 1 April 2018, Lot 541
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Rule 49 of the Sōgetsu school of modern flower arrangement, founded by Ikebana master Sofu Teshigahara, states the core tenets of Teshigahara’s philosophy of art: “The four principles of freshness, motion, balance and harmony. The three elements of line, color and mass”. Extrapolating from flower arrangement to sculpture, painting and avant-garde calligraphy works, Teshigahara began creating diverse forms of art using forms modeled by nature. He first exhibited as a sculptor at Tokyo’s Bridgestone Museum in 1957, subsequently gaining acclaim in the West through French critic-curator Michel Tapié, the organizer of Teshigahara’s first European solo exhibition at Galerie Stadler in Paris in 1959. In personal notes written during his first trip to Japan in 1957, Tapié raves: “Upon meeting [Teshigahara] for the first time, I sensed that I was before one of those exceptional creative talents who could present his work to the world. That kind of creativity is rare. After Picasso, I have been overawed by such presence only before the work of Pollock" (Michel Tapié, in “A Mental Reckoning of My First Trip to Japan (1957)”, in From Postwar to Postmodern: Art in Japan 1945-1989, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2012, p. 99-100).

The current lot, Dragon (folding screen), is a majestic example of Teshigahara’s innovative and multidimensional oeuvre. Executed on a six-paneled folding screen, Teshigahara’s immense brushstrokes hover transcendently, with forms and lines inspired by the dynamism of nature and a lyrical, interacting enfoldment informed by his mastery of topological adjacency. Simultaneously calligraphic, gestural and sculptural, reminiscent of traditional Chinese landscape as well as calligraphy, the monumentally exquisite piece is archetypal of Teshigahara’s unique Ikebana-inspired oeuvre. Dubbed “Picasso of flowers” by TIME Magazine, Teshigahara was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1960 and the Legion of Honor in 1961.

Apart from his own artistic career, Teshigahara demonstrated a passion for contemporary music and other art forms, founding the Sōgetsu Art Center in 1958. Operating from 1959 to 1971, the Sōgetsu Art Center was the most important platform for international intellectual and cultural exchange in post war Japan, operating an ambitious program that invited and collaborated with international figures such as Georges Mathieu, Sam Francis, Mark Tobey, Olivier Messiaen and John Cage. Commissioning a large volume of works, Teshigahara acted as a patron to young artists from both Japan and abroad, supporting the careers of artists such as  Toshimitsu Imaï, Mathieu and Francis, amongst others. The friendship between Teshigahara and American artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi was also widely documented, and the latter created a beautiful sky garden for Teshigahara’s Sōgetsu Kaikan. Teshigahara’s legacy, encompassing both his own art and the direct influence of others, is thus a hagiography like that of no other 20th century visual artist in Japan.