Sumo Art

[Usagi 31]

I wasn't allowed to open a thread in the Sumo Information-Forum, so I'll do it here.

I didn't find any thread about art related to sumo (woodprints, statues etc,) and think, this is missing.

I'll start with an slightly older painting of mine.

[egparis18 622]

I wasn't allowed to open a thread in the Sumo Information-Forum, so I'll do it here.

I didn't find any thread about art related to sumo (woodprints, statues etc,) and think, this is missing.

I'll start with an slightly older painting of mine.

Good painting. Could you post some more? By coincidence, I was all over internet a couple of days ago looking for sumo in western art, but it's hard to find and most of it's kitschy or even vulgar.

This is engaging though:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/marionzetta/8050372363/in/photostream/

and this not so bad:

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/decorative-objects/sculptures/monumental-wood-sumo-wrestler-sculpture-hy-farber/id-f_503209/

Bernard Buffet, the French painter, did a couple of paintings inspired by sumo, which you can easily find by typing Bernard Buffet sumo into Google's search box. I never liked his stuff - yours is better - but he's admired by others, and there's a museum dedicated to him in Japan.

[egparis18 622]

I found more Western sumo art by searching via Google France:

Painting

http://www.artmajeur.com/fr/art-gallery/editors_pick/sumo-1/8120455

One that perhaps only I will like:

http://www.galerie-com.com/oeuvre/sumo/108745/

Sculpture

http://www.jean-pierre-barreau.com/oeuvres.html

Some very good photographs by a Japanese guy:

http://koikoikoi.com/2012/06/art-of-sumo-by-tomoki-momozono/

And this:

http://www.thevirtualdriver.com/technology/2013/4/5/analog-trumps-digital-in-the-reality-stakes.html

Names to Google;

Alexandra Gestin

Jamie Salmon

Vladimir Gavronsky

[egparis18 622]

Jamie Salmon

Hyper-realist sculptor

This link will take you to his page about this sculpture:

http://avatarsculptureworks.com/jamiesubgall(Sumo).htm

Click on the last image at the bottom of the page to get more 'making of' images, but the video's been 'blocked in your country for copyright reasons' - at least for France, don't know if you can access it in other countries.

If Ron Mueck and Ewan Penny get inspired by sumo, I'll be delighted.

Edited January 23, 2016 by egparis18

[egparis18 622]

I found a site with 522 ukiyo-e with sumo as their subject - directly or indirectly (some of them are erotic - I looked). There are links to other sites. Enjoy!

http://ukiyo-e.org/search?q=sumo

Couple of examples:

Edited August 16, 2015 by egparis18

[egparis18 622]

Tomoki Momozono again.

Here you can find 2 or 3 images that weren't on the first site (above). For example:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/1926733/ART-OF-SUMO

Here there's an interview with him:

http://www.photoshoptutorials.ws/creative-inspirations/photography/interview-photographer-tomoki-momozono/?doing_wp_cron=1440339473.2229449748992919921875

Enjoy!

[egparis18 622]

Two French artists I like:

Denis Rouvre - another photographer.

Here's the link to his site (click on 'about at top left to get text)

http://www.rouvre.com/en/gallery/19/sumo

And Édouard Manet, no less, who didn't paint any sumo pictures, but was inspired by a print by Kuniaki II of Oonaruto Nadaemon. You can see it in the background of his portrait of Émil Zola. The text on the page is in French, but I can translate it for anybody who's really interested.

http://www.idixa.net/Pixa/pagixa-1204111633.html

Two French artists I don't like:

David Prudhomme - a very talented cartoonist, but rikishi are NOT FREAKS. You can see by some of his work that he could produce something brilliant if he'd stop sniggering. Call me a stuck-up bitch.

http://davidprudhomme.blogspot.fr/2013/05/lexpo-sumo-quelques-autres-images.html

Alexandra Gestin - to be fair, I don't dislike her work, but she's chosen the standard near-spherical morphology that a lot of Western artists do, plus the same face on each work, plus works all over red or gold or whatever. It irritates me. I don't suppose I'm the only member of Sumo Forum who can recognise rikishi just by their feet and their gait coming down the hanamichi at the top of the screen on YouTube. They're people, human beings, not balloons. Apologies to whoever chose the Sumo Forum logo. Call me a snotty-nosed bitch.

http://www.boumbang.com/alexandra-gestin/

Again, anyone who wants French text translated, just ask. I tried to insert some images, as before, to whet your appetite, but wasn't allowed. I'll ask the big guys about it.

I'd really like to hear some of your opinions.

[orandashoho 720]

Denis Rouvre -- well lit. Gritty. Unapologetic faces saying that hard work makes you strong. I like it.

I join you in stuck-up bitchhood about those who produce exaggerated, morphed, weirdified sumo images that belittle the people in the sport. An artist has the artistic license to deform and change shapes, of course, but doing so without artistic purpose does not seem right in my eyes.

[egparis18 622]

Three American painters, and I like all of them.

David Shevlino

Watch him on YouTube finishing a painting of two rikishi and a gyoji.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQqFVb4NQc

You can see more of his sumo-inspired paintings here:

http://www.gallery1261.com/html_artists/david-shevlino/david-shevlino-archive.htm#.VeLc5Pntmko

here:

http://davidshevlino.com/image15.html

and here (at the top):

https://www.artsy.net/show/gallery-1261-david-shevlino-solo-exhibition

For those of you who don't like loose brushwork, take a look at this, by Vincent Desiderio, and tell me if you think the rikishi on the right is Takayasu minus his lovely fuzz.

http://www.escapeintolife.com/painting/vincent-desiderio/

Vincent Desiderio's painting inspired this near abstract by Megan Koch. Scroll just over halfway down and you'll see Desiderio's work followed by what she made of it. She doesn't think too much of it herself, but I like it.

https://prettypuddles.wordpress.com/tag/arts/

Enjoy!

[egparis18 622]

Nostalgia today - old postcards + photographs.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/2504965162

The page is Okinawa Soba's and the image at the top is of a photograph by T. Enami. As you scroll down you'll find links to other images on other pages.

T. Enami is well worth investigating, especially if you like everything Japanese, If you just Google 'T. Enami sumo images ', you can glut yourself, and here's a page from the site dedicated to him :

http://www.t-enami.org/services Article 30 is the one about his sumo pictures.

Another site with stereograms by T. Enami, one of them sumo, http://weburbanist.com/2009/11/20/amazing-vintage-images-from-japans-forgotten-master/

Straight away, when I started searching, I found this site http://www.oldpostcards.com/sumo-wrestling-postcards.html

There's a bustling market for old sumo postcards apparently, judging by the number of results I got, and some of the prices.

All the above came from GoogleUK.

GoogleFR only gave me this :

http://www.zazzle.fr/sumo+du+japon+cadeaux

Christmas is coming ...

Warmest regards to everybody

[Naganoyama 5,841]

This is where I want to be able to give two likes to a single post.

[egparis18 622]

This is where I want to be able to give two likes to a single post.

Thank you very much.

[egparis18 622]

Surprise, surprise, there's a plant named for sumo, bred by an English gardener, Derek Telford, in the early nineties. Can't find out how he chose the name.

http://www.angusplants.co.uk/01%20goldcentred_alpine_auriculas.htm

It's a gold-centered alpine auricula. Easy to order if you'd like one.

Not that I've abandoned art for gardening. I found out by accident, from this page with more ukiyo-e, most of them superb.

http://www.magnoliabox.com/tag/sumo

Enjoy Aki 2015 everybody. I'll still be posting while it's going on, but saving the most spectacular stuff until it's over.

Edited September 13, 2015 by egparis18

[egparis18 622]

Carl Randall

Figurative artist. He paints and/or draws people very realistically, but plays with scale as he pleases and more or less ignores perspective. He's not so much describing as communicating, and he's only done one 'sumo' painting.

People who love all things Japanese, however, will want to read this http://www.thejackdaw.co.uk/?p=1162

It's him talking about his art, and includes a link to his site.

And it's well worth watching this video about him on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdiyiWR3LNA

Enjoy

[egparis18 622]

Yishai Judisman

Oil paintings on wood from the late nineties. He's transformed the battle between rikishi into a battle between styles of painting - to say what the introduction says, but in words granny and the kids would understand. I recommend not reading the introduction but going straight to the slideshow. It looks as though he painted from photographs of bouts and also of practice sessions. The best ones seem to express the battle between the individual rikishi and himself too.

http://www.yishaijusidman.com/sumo/

​

[Naganoyama 5,841]

In some pictures the rikishi appear to be imprisoned in the art and in others art is the adversary.

[egparis18 622]

In some pictures the rikishi appear to be imprisoned in the art and in others art is the adversary.

Nice one. You nailed it. That's what makes you look. I was so intrigued, I went back for another look. Several looks.

I wonder if he didn't adapt this Constable for his background in number V. I looked at some Gainsboroughs too, and Courbets and Böcklins with grappling nymphs and centaurs, even a Titian. Rikishi taking on titans.

[Naganoyama 5,841]

I think you're right about the background. It certainly fits the idea of a battle between styles of painting. Constable is about as far as you can get from the other styles being represented.

Is there an element in pictures of the artist absorbing the strength of the rikishi by "defeating" him in a picture?

[egparis18 622]

I think you're right about the background. It certainly fits the idea of a battle between styles of painting. Constable is about as far as you can get from the other styles being represented.

Is there an element in pictures of the artist absorbing the strength of the rikishi by "defeating" him in a picture?

I went and took another look. Yes, I think there is. There's also a head to head going on between abstract and figurative, and something else with all those planes overlapping like shuffled cards or piled-up and 'trapping' the rikishi. For me, they're the least obvious of all the sumo paintings I've found, but the most fascinating.

[egparis18 622]

Netsuke

http://www.trocadero.com/stores/dmitry/items/1237563/item1237563.html

And a whole e-book full of them:

http://rutherston.com/sumo-netsuke-okimono/#p=16

Enjoy!

Edited October 11, 2015 by egparis18

[egparis18 622]

Photographs by Toru Hanai of training bouts in May 2015, at http://avaxnews.net/fact/Big_Sport.html

I think photography is art.

Enjoy

[egparis18 622]

Rice straw sculptures. The yokozuna is the very last image, but the others are great too,so enjoy scrolling down. They put corn-dollies in the shade.http://www.designstack.co/2013/11/rice-straw-sculptures.html

Edited October 16, 2015 by egparis18

[Naganoyama 5,841]

Wow brilliant. I loved the animals.

[egparis18 622]

I didn't want to start with the image below, since it's a bit startling. I wanted to start with the one you'll find here http://www.jaodb.com/db/ItemDetail.asp?item=41928 , but the site (blood-boilingly annoying at times) won't let me upload it. You might find a bit twee, but there's a copy in the very stately British Museum, and the artist is very good. More about him here http://www.artelino.com/articles/koson_ohara.asp and more about frogs and toads in Japanese culture here http://altjapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/theres-something-about-toads.html

Alessandro Gallo http://www.alessandrogallo.net/portfolio.php?id_album=2

There are three images of this sculpture, plus images of others by him. The frog rikishi fits right in, and I like this stuff. It doesn't turn me into a stuck-up b***h, animal heads notwithstanding. They're weirdly humane.

Edited October 18, 2015 by egparis18

[Asojima 2,870]

I wanted to start with the one you'll find here .....

Edited October 18, 2015 by Asojima