Shinkichi Tajiri (Los Angeles, December 7, 1923 – Baarlo, Netherlands, March 15, 2009) was an American sculptor who resided in the Netherlands from 1956 onwards. He was also active in

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

photography Photography is the visual art, art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It i ...

and

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of Film, motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (o ...

Childhood and education

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest As ...

, Tajiri was born in Watts, a working-class neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was the fifth of seven children born to Ryukichi Tajiri and Fuyo Kikuta, first generation emigrants (

issei is a Japanese-language term used by ethnic Japanese in countries in North America and South America to specify the Japanese people who were the first generation to immigrate there. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are ...

), who moved from Japan to the United States in 1906 and 1913. In 1936, the family relocated to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. His father died when he was fifteen. In 1940, Tajiri received his first lessons in sculpture from

Donal Hord Donal Hord (February 26, 1902 – June 29, 1966), an American sculptor, was born Donald Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin. Early life In 1914, Hord and his mother moved west, to Seattle, Washington. Shortly thereafter he contracted rheumatic fever, a ...

Life and work

In 1942, following the signing of

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain ...

, Tajiri's family was incarcerated at Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona. Tajiri was a soldier, with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, like his brother Vincent. They fought in Europe, from 1943 on and he was wounded in Italy. Shinkichi went back to Chicago to study at the Art Institute from 1946 to 1948. In 1949 he went to Paris to study with

Ossip Zadkine Ossip Zadkine (russian: Осип Цадкин; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Belarusian-born French artist. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs. Early years and education Zadkine was born on ...

and then

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually modified into a more figurative, po ...

. He met

Karel Appel Christiaan Karel Appel (; 25 April 1921 – 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-gar ...

and Corneille in Paris and shows at the 1949 COBRA exhibition at the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Amsterdam. In 1951 he went to Germany and taught at the

Werkkunstschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...

Wuppertal. In 1955 he won a

Golden Palm The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at Cannes, for his first short film, '' The Vipers'', because of his experimental use of the language of film. From 1956 he lived in the Netherlands, since 1962 in Baarlo. He worked as a sculptor and painter. He exhibited at the famous Kassel

documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...

II, 1959; III, 1964 and IV, 1968. From 1969 Tajiri Shinkichi taught at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste at Berlin. 1969 and 1970 Shinkichi took pictures of every part of the Berlin Wall. In 1970 he went to Denmark and directed the award-winning documentary ''Bodil Joensen – en sommerdag juli 1970'' about Bodil Joensen. In 1975 and 1976 he recreated the

Daguerreotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre ...

: surreal portraits, nudes and daguerreotypes of the Wall.

Catalogues

* ''Spiegel mit Erinnerungen, Shiunkichi Tajiris Wiederentdeckung der Daguerreotypie''. Exhibition, catalogue, Künstlerhaus Bethanien: Berlin, editor, 1977 * ''Stereoscopic Views by Tajiri'', Exhibition, catalogue, Stedelijk Museum: Amsterdam, editor, 1979

Notes

References

* Jörg Kirchbaum, ''Lexikon der Fotografen'', Frankfurt am Main: Fischer TB, 1981, p. 183. * Claudia Bulk, "Tajiri, Shinkichi," in: Reinhold Mißelbeck, ed., ''Prestel- Lexikon der Fotografen: Von den Anfängen 1839 bis zur Gegenwart'', Munich: Prestel, 2002, p. 235.

External links

Official website of Shinkichi Tajiri

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tajiri, Shinkichi 1923 births 2009 deaths Dutch sculptors Dutch male sculptors American artists of Japanese descent Dutch people of Japanese descent Naturalised citizens of the Netherlands Artists from Los Angeles United States Army personnel of World War II American military personnel of Japanese descent Japanese-American internees 20th-century American sculptors American male sculptors American emigrants to the Netherlands Sculptors from California 20th-century American male artists