Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, November 13, 2024: Kan Yasuda, a Japanese sculptor (#2156)

Carving, shaping and polishing stone with the most subtle of touches, thereby accentuating the curves and textures of his marble with the supple, soft forms of nature, the solemn sculptures of Kan Yasuda (1945) are serene stone poems that are carefully executed to stand the tests of time for centuries, if not millennia. With an eye to the future, yet with the resolute understanding of his material and its ancient history, Yasuda’s minimal sculptures, made predominantly with the pure white marble taken from the same quarries as Michelangelo, are made through deep conversations with his material, in a practice that is much like prayer itself. They are not sculpted to fit into a passing fad or trend, yet are made to withstand and even transcend the passing of time, seemingly melting into a certain space or environment as if it was there from the very beginning of existence, thereby taking down the boundaries between time, space, and man.

Having assisted the legendary Isamu Noguchi in the creation of his seminal work Slide Mantra for the Venice Biennale in 1986, Isamu Noguchi says of Kan Yasuda: “Art’s art is the artist’s difficult conscience. It is his past development to which he owes all that he has become. It reveals his inner self, or so he thinks. But that of course is his most serious problem. How to develop in depth betrayals true message. It is the artist’s obligation to change into his ever widening perception. Kan has expressed it with his forked squares where he denies himself and all his skills.”

Kan Yasuda has received a multitude of accolades for his storied career including the Order of the Star of Solidarity by the Italian government in 2006, the Giacomo Puccini Award in 2010, and most recently the Architectural Institute of Japan Culture Award in 2020, among others. With work and monuments in public collections the world over including Naoshima in Japan, the Boboli Gardens in Florence and the Trajan’s Market in Rome, Garachico in Spain and 1251 Avenue of the Americas in NY, the artist is internationally renowned as one of the greatest living sculptors of Japan. Residing and working in Pietrasanta, Italy for nearly half of the year since 1970, A Lighthouse called Kanata is proud to be able to showcase Kan Yasuda’s talismanic works in marble at TEFAF Maastricht 2024.

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