Minoru Niizuma (1930 - 1998) worked extensively with stone throughout his entire career. After graduating from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Niizuma moved to New York in 1959 in search of further knowledge of the power tools necessary to work with stone on a larger scale. From 1964 through 1970 he was an instructor at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and from 1972 through 1984, he was an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Throughout this time, Niizuma developed significant relationships with various other Japanese artists, including Yoko Ono, Tomio Miki, and Isamu Noguchi. Niizuma is known for photographing Yoko Ono’s performance art, “Cut Piece” at Carnegie Hall.

Niizuma worked mainly in marble and granite, but did not shy away from other stones, like limestone, alabaster, and onyx. Niizuma also worked with bronze and wood. As his understanding of each stone developed, so did his search for beautiful stone. He visited various quarries throughout the world, and sourced the majority of his stone from Italy, Portugal, and Vermont. Niizuma participated in and was the director for many stone symposiums where he and others would use the stone from the area to create sculptures that would be showcased in the area. In Evora (Portugal), St. Margarethen (Austria), Vermont (US), and Iwate (Japan), Niizuma worked with the local marble and granite to create sculptures that remain there to this day.

“Minoru Niizuma, Stone Carver”

Written by Thomas Messer, Director of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1975

Minoru Niizuma belongs to a vanishing breed of stone carvers whose purpose is to animate inert mass by converting it into eloquent form. This he achieves by translating much of himself, often in the most immediate sense, through physical proximity and muscular exertion into variously colored and textured marble surfaces which then, as if in gratitude, acknowledge through the resulting formal perfection the imprint of the sculptor’s mind and hand.

The basic forms are relatively few and the surface treatment is often repeated with appropriate modifications. A cube for instance deftly balanced on its point with part of its surface highly polish contrasts with parallel rough grooves that run like furrows opened by a plough in the good earth. The same quasi-geometric cube shape may reappear upright, supported by an integral pedestal in black marble whose delicate white veins add to the formal vibrancy a lifelike dimension. Then again, an all white triangular structure this time supported by an oak stand is set into a seemingly rhythmic flow by a wavy, grooved hypotenuse.

The examples in Portuguese, Italian, Bavarian, and US marble could be multiplied but through all of them Niizuma achieves lightness, dynamism, and formal grace that nevertheless compatible with the solidity, the gravity, and the elemental power of the stony matière.

Niizuma’s tone sculpture is capable of projecting meanings and evoking associations without need of an explicit subject matter. The artist’s confident reliance upon the communicative power of his materials and surface, of course, on the basic oriental tradition - one so easily admired yet wholly beyond emulation in western traditions of modern art.

Thomas Messer, Guggenheim Director from 1961 to 1988

Photo: © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Introduction

Written by Lisa Taylor, Director, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Design, 1986

Minoru Niizuma is an artist of major importance. His place in the history of modern sculpture is assured. He is among the few internationally known sculptors working in stone today. Although his background is Japanese, his work is universal; although he has deep respect for tradition, his art is completely contemporary.

My admiration for Niizuma’s work has grown steadily over the years. It has been an immensely pleasurable and exciting experience to witness his creative development - to observe the transition from his earlier work, which was dramatic and bold to his recent work, which is elegant and restrained. Along the way he has met any challenges, such as the one presented by this exhibition of pieces executed entirely in black granite and white marble.

It was not until Niizuma had worked in stone for thirty years that he admits to having begun to understand and appreciate this medium. At that time, he claims to have started to allow stone to speak to him and direct him, rather than to inflict his own personality on it. When he discovered that stone possesses a life of its own, he began to carve less and his work became quieter and more sure.

While there is an Oriental precedent many centuries old for working in monochrome, it is usually associated with brushwork and not the shaping of stone. The work Niizuma produced in Portugal shows a new kind of power that comes with assurance. It is simple, straightforward, handsome, contemplative, and proud. It shows great sensitivity and masterful skill. Above all, The World of Silence suggests accord between artist and material.

Lisa Taylor, Director, Cooper-Hewitt Museum

Photo: © Smithsonian Archives

CV

Education

Graduated from the National Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo

Teaching Positions

1964 - 1970 Instructor, Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York

1972 - 1984 Adjunct Professor, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York

1983 - 1994 Director, Stone Institute of New York

Solo Exhibitions

1966 Howard Wise Gallery, New York, NY

1967 Flair Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio

1968 Howard Wise Gallery, New York, NY

1971 Rockefeller University, New York, NY

1972 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, NY

1973 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, NY

Gimpel, Hanover and Andre Emmerich Galerie, Zurich Switzerland

1974 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, NY

1976 Center for International Arts, New York, NY

Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

1977 Umeda Museum of Modern Art, Osaka

Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, NY

Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY

1979 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York, NY

Contemporary Sculpture Center, Tokyo, Japan

Contemporary Sculpture Center, Osaka, Japan

1982 Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY

Rosenberg Fine Arts Gallery, Toronto, Canada

1983 Mekler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1984 Vorpal Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Designer’s Emporium, Honolulu, Hawaii

1986 Art Point Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Centro Cultural, Lorenco, Almansil, Portugal

Mekler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal

1988 Galeria Quadrom, Lisbon, Portugal

1989 The Blue Hill Cultural Center, New York, NY

(with Francoise Gilot - paintings)

Mekler Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Foundation Veranneman, Belgium

1990 Foundation Akemi, Amagansaki, Japan

Gallery 21 Kitakyushu-shi, Japan

1991 Troa-cho Fashion, Seoul, Korea

Group Exhibitions

1965 “Japanese Artists Abroad: Europe and America”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Japan

1966 “The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture” Traveling Exhibition: San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco CA; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; University of Illinois, Urbana, IL; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE; The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, WI

1966 “Sculpture Annual”, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1967 “Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture”, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

1968 “Sculpture Annual”, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1968 “American Painting and Sculpture”, Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN

1969 “Second Flint Invitational”, Flint Institute of Arts in the De Waters Art Center, Flint, MI

1973 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York, NY

1974 “Japanese Artists in the American”, The national Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan

1975 “13th Biennial” Open Air Museum of Sculpture, Middelheim, Antwerp, Belgium

1977 “The Grand Prize of the Hakone Open Air Museum, The 3rd Exhibition” Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan

1980 “Paintings and Sculpture by Candidates for Art Awards” American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

1981 “The 2nd Henry Moore Grand Prize Exhibition” Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan

1981 “The 1960’s - A Decade of Change in Contemporary Japanese Art” The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan

1982 “World Stone Sculpture” Kunsthaus Zug, Switzerland

1983-84 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York, NY

1983-84 Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY

1987-88 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York, NY

1990 Japanese Sculpture Fukushima Museum

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2015 “Artists from Postwar Japan,” Nippon Gallery at the Nippon Club, New York, NY

2021 “Unseen Professors”, Tina Kim Gallery, New York, NY

Private Collections

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA

Oklahoma Museum, Oklahoma City, OK

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA

San Francisco Museum, San Francisco, CA

The Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal

The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan

The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

Hyogo Museum of Modern Art, Kobe, Japan

Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan

The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan

Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Ibaraki, Japan

Iwatemachi Scupture Garden, Iwate, Japan

City of Dublin, Ireland

City of Evora, Portugal

City of Oporto, Portugal

City of Tokyo, Japan

City of Hachioji, Japan

City of Shizuoka, Japan

City of Hekinan, Japan

New York University, New York, NY

Rockefeller University, New York, NY

Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

Williams College, Williamstown, MA

University College of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

American Embassy, Tokyo

IBM Zurich, Switzerland

TRW Cleveland, Ohio

The Chase Manhattan Bank Headquarters, New York, NY

Citibank Headquarters, New York, NY

Sanwa Bank, New York, NY

General Mills Corporation, Minneapolis, MN

Heublein Company, CT

Atlantic Richfield Co., Los Angeles, CA

Norin Chuo Ginko, Tokyo, Japan

Chiba Bank, Chiba, Japan

Suntory Headquarters, Osaka, Japan

Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III, New York, NY

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Bunshaft, New York, NY

Mr. Roy Neuberger, New York, NY

Mr. R. Farkas, New York, NY