This series visits the homes of art collectors and takes a look at their collections.
For our fourth installment, we introduce @gutsurohi, who posts records of exhibition visits and works from his collection on Instagram.
gutsurohi is a collector in his thirties: a former art student who worked as a painter, then at a gallery, then at an advertising agency, and today runs his own company.
I first met him around the fall of 2019 through a mutual collector friend, and we have been in touch ever since. At a collectors’ year-end party I asked about visiting his home, which led to today’s visit.
A beautiful home designed by a renowned architect.
Collector Interview
gutsurohi_ told me that he entered the world of art collecting with the aim of hanging works in the home he completed three years ago. A graduate of the oil painting program at Tama Art University with a career at a gallery, he has a deep knowledge of art.
gutsurohi_, who kindly answered the interview.
How long have you been collecting?
About five years.
What got you started?
When I began designing my house.
He commissioned the architect Shinichi Ogawa to design his home.
Please tell us your collecting policy or particular focus.
Mainly painters of my own generation. I especially want to support artists whom I feel are undervalued.
To make the most of the space in my home, I collect large-scale works.
Yutaka Watanabe, “Picasso and Women,” 2019, charcoal and oil on canvas, 162 × 130.3 cm
What is your most favorite piece?
A work by Teppei Takeda.
A single work displayed in the entrance.
About a year before his solo show at Maho Kubota Gallery, I was shown works in the gallery’s back space, and I remember getting excited — an incredible artist had appeared! Inquiries were flooding in even before the solo show opened, and it was uncertain whether I could purchase anything, but I was fortunate enough to obtain the piece I liked best.
In 2006, I went to see Kei Imazu’s first solo show at a rental gallery.
I was working as an artist at the time, and among my contemporaries I had my eye on Kei Imazu as someone likely to become a major artist.
Almost ten years later, in 2015, when I began designing my house with collecting in mind, I learned that Yamamoto Gendai was holding a solo show of Imazu, and I decided to purchase her work as my first-ever collection piece. That was in 2015, roughly a decade after her debut solo show.
Framed drawings as well — left: Kei Imazu.
Which artist most interests you at the moment?
Ai Makita.
She is a master of super-refined technique whose motifs include metal parts. Before I purchased a work I associated her with strongly figurative, machine-part imagery.
Recently, however, she has been presenting works that retain the beauty of her metal rendering but tend toward much greater abstraction — I feel her appeal has grown even further.
She has a solo show coming up in New York in April, and she is an artist to look forward to.
Displayed in the best-viewed spot in the living room — Ai Makita, “Shadow:bold,” 2017, 162 × 162 cm, oil on canvas.
7. Which emerging artists do you have high expectations for?
Keisuke Tada, Keisuke Katsuki, and Reina Sanpei.
Keisuke Tada, “Painting of Remnants #40,” wooden panel, oil and acrylic, 65.5 × 65.5 × 5.4 cm, 2018
Reina Sanpei, “The face,” oil on canvas, 65 × 50 cm, 2016
8. Which art collectors do you respect (or find interesting)? @sh_art_collector.
Most collectors, I think, narrow their focus to certain preferences or genres. I am the same, and it is easy to end up looking only at works that fit one’s taste, gradually narrowing one’s field of vision.
@sh_art_collector’s collection and the works he posts on Instagram are not constrained by genre; I felt he has an appreciation for every possibility of art. He is an influential collector who made me aware of the biases in my own viewing habits.
9. What are your favorite (or regularly visited) galleries?
Maho Kubota Gallery, ANOMALY, EUKARYOTE, and Yutaka Kikutake Gallery.
Reflections after the visit
He is a collector who focuses on large-scale works and keeps his annual acquisitions to just a few pieces.
Rather than displaying works in isolation, he hangs pieces powerful enough to change the character of the interior, and one can see how life and art coexist in balance.
A pairing of a work by Aya Imamura with a vase purchased at the Mashiko pottery fair — the display of smaller works was also lovely.
Unlike me, who hangs works wherever a wall exists, he has plenty of white walls yet employs a display approach that deeply considers the use of space.
The way he shows off art and living space with a minimum of works was extremely skillful and left a strong impression.
Counter kitchen and bookshelves on the second floor.
gutsurohi shares works he has viewed and pieces from his own collection on the following Instagram account.
본 기획은 아트 컬렉터의 자택을 방문해 컬렉션을 감상하는 시리즈입니다.
네 번째 회에서는 Instagram에 전시 방문 기록과 컬렉션 작품을 게시하는 ＠gutsurohi 씨를 소개합니다.
gutsurohi 씨는 미대 출신으로, 화가 활동에서 화랑 근무, 광고대리점 근무를 거쳐 현재는 회사를 경영하는 30대 남성 컬렉터입니다.
필자와는 한 컬렉터 지인을 통해 2019년 가을 무렵 처음 만난 이래로 계속 교류하고 있습니다. 연말 컬렉터 송년회에서 자택 방문을 부탁드려 이번 방문이 성사되었습니다.
저명한 건축가가 설계한 멋진 자택.
컬렉터 인터뷰
gutsurohi_ 씨는 3년 전 준공한 자택에 걸 작품을 목적으로 아트 컬렉션의 세계에 입문했다고 합니다. Tama Art University 유화과 출신이며 화랑 근무 경력을 지닌, 미술에 조예 깊은 분이었습니다.
인터뷰에 응해 주신 gutsurohi_ 씨.
컬렉터 경력은?
약 5년입니다.
컬렉션을 시작한 계기는?
자택의 건축 설계를 시작한 시점입니다.
자택 설계는 건축가 Shinichi Ogawa에게 의뢰했다고 합니다.
컬렉션의 방침이나 고집이 있다면?
동세대 화가가 중심입니다. 또한 저평가되어 있다고 느껴지는 작가를 특히 응원하고 싶습니다.
자택 공간을 최대한 살리기 위해 대형 작품을 중심으로 컬렉션하고 있습니다.
Yutaka Watanabe 《Picasso and Women》 2019년 charcoal and oil on canvas 162×130.3cm
가장 마음에 드는 아트 피스는?
Teppei Takeda의 작품입니다.
현관에 단 한 점만 걸어둔 작품.
Maho Kubota Gallery에서 개인전이 열리기 약 1년 전부터 갤러리 백스페이스에서 작품을 보여주셨는데, 대단한 작가가 등장했구나! 하고 흥분했던 기억이 납니다. 개인전 시작 전부터 문의가 쇄도했다고 하여 구입이 가능할지 미묘했지만, 다행히 가장 마음에 드는 작품을 손에 넣을 수 있었습니다.
Teppei Takeda 《Painting for Painting 019》 2019년
기억에 남는 컬렉션 에피소드가 있다면?
Kei Imazu의 작품 《berlin 1943 – 1945》입니다.
Kei Imazu 《berlin 1943 – 1945》 2014년 ※gutsurohi_ 씨 촬영
2006년, 대여 화랑에서 열린 Kei Imazu의 첫 개인전을 보러 갔습니다.
당시 작가 활동을 하고 있던 저는 동세대 젊은 작가들 가운데 Kei Imazu가 장차 대단한 작가가 될 것이라고 주목하고 있었습니다.
그로부터 10년 가까이 지난 2015년. 컬렉션을 전제로 자택 설계를 시작한 시점에 Yamamoto Gendai에서 이마즈 씨의 개인전이 열리고 있다는 사실을 알게 되어, 첫 컬렉션으로 이마즈 씨의 작품을 구입하기로 결정했습니다. 첫 개인전으로부터 약 10년이 지난 2015년의 일입니다.
액자에 넣은 드로잉 작품도 — 왼쪽: Kei Imazu.
현재 가장 관심 있는 아티스트는?
Ai Makita 씨입니다.
금속 부품 등을 모티프로 삼는 초절기교의 작가로, 구입 이전에는 기계 부품 같은 구상성 강한 작품이라는 인상을 가지고 있었습니다.
하지만 최근 작품은 금속 묘사의 아름다움은 그대로 유지하면서 추상성이 높아진 작품을 발표하고 있어 매력이 더욱 커졌다고 느낍니다.
4월에 뉴욕에서 개인전을 앞두고 있어, 앞으로가 매우 기대되는 작가입니다.
거실에서 가장 시선이 잘 닿는 최적의 위치에 걸린 작품 — Ai Makita 《Shadow:bold》 2017년 162cm×162cm Oil Painting , Canvas
7. 기대되는 젊은 아티스트는?
Keisuke Tada, Keisuke Katsuki, Reina Sanpei 씨입니다.
