James Hiroshi Suzuki

JAMES HIROSHI SUZUKI (Japan, 1933-2022).
Untitled, 1962.
Mixed media on cardboard.
Presents rust stains.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 52,5 x 39 cm.
James Hiroshi Suzuki was born in Yokohama and received private art training from Yoshio Markino, a renowned Japanese artist who emigrated to the United States in the late 19th century and resided for several decades in London before returning to Japan at the outbreak of World War II. Under Markino's influence and guidance, Suzuki was motivated to embark on a journey to the United States, where he sought a genuine immersion in American culture away from the traditional Japanese environment.
His tour of the country began on the West Coast, with stays in cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, before heading to the East Coast, specifically Maine. There he continued his training at the Portland School of Fine Arts. In 1953, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Corcoran School of Art, in Washington D. C. He later moved to New York City, and in 1958 received the prestigious Whitney Opportunity Fellowship.
That same year, Suzuki participated in the exhibition Contemporary Painters of Japanese Ancestry in the U.S.-1958, organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. His works were also presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, consolidating his presence in the New York art circuit. During this period he befriended and collaborated with prominent Abstract Expressionist artists such as Kenzo Okada, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Saburo Hasegawa and Jackson Pollock. His work was exhibited in renowned New York galleries and in numerous museum shows, many of them traveling exhibitions.
During the 1960s, Suzuki expanded his international projection and returned to California, where he began his teaching career at the University of California, Berkeley, sharing academic space with figures such as David Hockney. Between 1964 and 1965 he taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts, and in 1972 he began his teaching career at California State University, Sacramento, where he remained until the end of his academic career before returning to Japan.
In stylistic terms, Suzuki's early abstract works are characterized by a marked lyricism, evocative of the Japanese aesthetic tradition. Some of his pieces show the influence of abstract impressionism, with rapid and expressive calligraphic strokes. Throughout his career he explored various media, sometimes incorporating written language as a visual resource to intensify the content of his works. In his later stages, his artistic production acquired a more committed tone, clearly integrating a critical dimension of a social and political nature.