Sadao Hasegawa: The Monument of Lips
about exhibition
Garth Greenan Gallery is pleased to announce The Monument of Lips: Sadao Hasegawa, 1974–1993, at 10 Greene Street in SoHo. Organized by Peter Kelly, the presentation is on view from November 7 through December 19. The show is Hasegawa’s first solo exhibition in the United States, and among the first presentations of the artist’s work outside of Japan.
A self-taught artist, Hasegawa (1945–99) was the leading Japanese erotic artist of his generation, making drawings and paintings for publication in the magazines that circulated and sustained the Tokyo queer scenes of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. His masterfully rendered, richly adorned tableaux incorporate imagery from a wide range of cultural and historical sources—from Aubrey Beardsley to Go Mishima, Greek Koroi to Hindu deities, Japanese folklore to American cartoons. “Even when composition is sparse,” writes Kelly in the exhibition’s accompanying catalogue, “there is a palpable density of association—a profusion of symbolism, history, and imagination.”
The Monument of Lips provides an overview of Hasegawa’s art, featuring a carefully selected group of drawings and paintings—many of which originally appeared in Tokyo-based magazines such as Barazoko, Samson, and Sabu. In these works, Hasegawa’s exquisite draftsmanship, virtuosic sense of color, and unfettered visual imagination yield scenes of Technicolor skies, lush landscapes, and mystical, erotic release. Combining technical finesse and a wide-ranging creative vision, Hasegawa’s work mounts an innate challenge to categories of fine art, illustration, and erotica. In so doing, he suggests new horizons—and possibilities—for beauty and desire, where fantasy is not latent but a powerful aesthetic force.
To pay tribute to the print-media origins of Hasegawa’s art, Garth Greenan Gallery will host an artists’ book fair at the gallery on November 14. The event will feature a sequence of readings curated by typographer Nat Pyper. In addition, the gallery will host a related panel discussion and film screening.