{
"data": {
"id": 157370,
"accession_number": "1994.23",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Aegean Sea, Pelion I, 1990. Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, 1948-). Gelatin silver print; image: 42.2 x 54.3 cm (16 5/8 x 21 3/8 in.); paper: 48.7 x 60.2 cm (19 3/16 x 23 11/16 in.); matted: 63.5 x 81.3 cm (25 x 32 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, Mrs. John B. Dempsey, and Mr. Donald F. Barney Jr., in honor of Brenda and Evan Turner, 1994.23",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Aegean Sea, Pelion I",
"creation_date": "1990",
"creation_date_earliest": 1990,
"creation_date_latest": 1990,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Japan"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - Japanese 20th Century",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 42.2 x 54.3 cm (16 5/8 x 21 3/8 in.); Paper: 48.7 x 60.2 cm (19 3/16 x 23 11/16 in.); Matted: 63.5 x 81.3 cm (25 x 32 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.422,
"height_inch": 16,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.543,
"width_inch": 21,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375
},
"paper": {
"height": 0.487,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.602,
"width_inch": 23,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.6875
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.635,
"height_inch": 25,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.813,
"width_inch": 32,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Embossed in paper on recto: \"Aegean Sea 17/25 349\"; written in pencil on mount: \"Aegean Sea Pillion [sic] 1990 / Hiroshi Sugimoto [signed] 17/25 349\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311875,
"title": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1996-11-24T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: \"Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-02-02T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In his striking, minimal seascapes, Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto conveys the sensation of timelessness and infinite space. For this series, begun in 1980, he traveled the world to photograph vast bodies of water from high cliffs using a large format camera. By eliminating all indications of land and humanity, Sugimoto revealed the subtle differences in atmosphere, light, wind and wave patterns at each site. In these three prints, the junction of sea and sky is depicted in the morning, on a foggy day not long before noon, and one hour after dusk. With trancelike intensity, these evocative seascapes provide cogent metaphors for transience, emptiness, and dislocation.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79973553"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 350",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1994.23",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, Mrs. John B. Dempsey, and Mr. Donald F. Barney Jr., in honor of Brenda and Evan Turner",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 157370,
"creators": [
{
"id": 985,
"description": "Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, 1948-)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Hiroshi Sugimoto Japanese, 1948-\r\n\r\nThe photographs of Hiroshi Sugimoto explore the connections between modern and ancient worlds. His early interior views of unpeopled cinemas, aglow with the eerie light of a projected film, suggest modern-day shrines. With similar intentions, he began to photograph in museums, particularly exhibits that featured life-size taxidermy animals and wax human figures.\r\n\tSince 1977 Sugimoto has traveled the world to photograph barren seascapes. These subjects, which have become his hallmark, are shown with subtle variations in time of day, horizon line, and weather conditions, achieving from a distance the effect of a color-field painting by encouraging viewers to lose themselves in the haze. The black-and-white format, however, is a continual reminder of both the actuality of the subject and its perilous environmental state.\r\n\tAs a child, Sugimoto (born in Tokyo) took up photography with a fervor. He graduated from Saint Paul's University, Tokyo (B.A., 1970), leaving Japan for the United States to study at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles (B.F.A., 1972). In 1974 he moved to New York City, opening an antiques business before launching full-time into freelance photography.\r\n\tIn addition to a one-person exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1989), Sugimoto has shown his work at the Palais des Beaux Arts, Charlerol, Belgium (1993), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1993, and tour), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1995). His awards include a New York Creative Artists Public Service Grant (1977) and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1980) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1982). Sugimoto lives in New York and Tokyo. A.W.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1948",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1994-05-24T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1990,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1990",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": "17",
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:51:48.231000"
}
}