De Primi Fine Art SA is a Swiss art gallery based in Lugano. The Company can offer various services to its clients: consultation and advice on individual works of art or entire collections; authentication, valuations and negotiating the sale or purchase of artworks, either privately or at auction. With our years of experience and expertise we aim to provide a complete advisory service.
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo in 1948. In 1970 he moved to Los Angeles and studied photography at the Art Center College of Design. He lives in New York and Tokyo.
His reading of André Breton’s writings led to his discovery of Surrealism and Dada and a lifelong connection to the work and philosophy of Marcel Duchamp. Central to Sugimoto’s work is the idea that photography is a time machine, a method of preserving and picturing memory and time. This theme provides the defining principle of his ongoing series, including Dioramas (1976–), Theaters (1978–), and Seascapes (1980–).
His use of an 8×10 large-format camera and extremely long exposures have garnered Sugimoto a reputation as a photographer of the highest technical ability. He is equally acclaimed for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work.
Sugimoto sees with the eye of the sculptor, painter, architect, and philosopher. He uses his camera in a myriad of ways to create images that seem to convey his subjects’ essence, whether architectural, sculptural, painterly, or of the natural world. He places extraordinary value on craftsmanship, printing his photographs with meticulous attention and a keen understanding of the nuances of the silver print and its potential for tonal richness—in his seemingly infinite palette of blacks, whites, and grays.
Sugimoto is also an accomplished architect. He approaches all of his work from many different perspectives, and architecture is one component that he uses to design the settings for his exhibitions. His recent projects include an architectural commission at Naoshima Contemporary Art Center in Japan, for which Sugimoto designed and built a Shinto shrine.
De Primi Fine Art SA
Agents and Dealers in Objets d’Art, Old Master, Modern and Contemporary Fine Art
Piazza Cioccaro 2, 3rd floor
6900 Lugano, Switzerland
tel +41.91.9234833
fax +41.91.9234835
[email protected]
