Masahisa Fukase

"It’s highly unusual to represent a living artist that I’ve never met, but such was the case for Masahisa Fukase. One of Japan’s most important post-war photographers, Fukase’s work was introduced to me in the late 1990s by curator Sandra Phillips of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Fukase was incapacitated resulting from an accident in 1992, so I worked with his agent to organize a significant exhibition in our new 6,000 square foot Chelsea space in 1999. We chose to focus on his seminal series Karasu (Ravens or The Solitude of Ravens) 1975 – 1982, a series of dark and brooding images mostly of crows that he likely created in response to his divorce but that had larger overtones about post-war Japanese society. Up until that time Fukase’s work was not well known in the United States. We had a phenomenal response and placed many prints in important institutional and private collections.

In the particular print chosen for this sale, Koen-dori, Shibuya, 1982, the wings and legs of the crow caught by Fukase’s camera hang in such a way as to imply it is taking off in flight, perhaps having just delivered a message or prophesy since in Japanese culture it is revered as a divine messenger." - Robert Mann

Founded in 1985, Robert Mann Gallery specializes in 20th-century masters of photography and represents an international roster contemporary artists working in photo-based art.