Background
Hiro Yamagata was born on May 30, 1948, in a city called Maihara situated in a Shiga prefecture of Japan. He is the third child of a lumber businessman.
浩生 山形
Hiro Yamagata was born on May 30, 1948, in a city called Maihara situated in a Shiga prefecture of Japan. He is the third child of a lumber businessman.
Hiro Yamagata revealed his passion for painting in elementary school. Since that time, he attended the evening art classes.
While at high school, where Yamagata had studied between 1964 and 1967, he pursued his artistic training with a Japanese-style painter. It was at this period that the boy started to use lights in his early creations which were marked by many awards. Masachika Sugimura began to teach Yamagata in 1967.
Five years later, Yamagata came to Paris and entered the Ecole Des Beaux Arts.
Hiro Yamagata’s professional journey started after 1967 when he worked for some time in Tokyo as an illustrator and a designer for an advertising company.
In 1972, Yamagata along with his colleagues Yuhji Itsumi, Youichi Sai, and Takeshi Shino started the project named JIM. The same year, the artist moved to Milan with his girlfriend. Soon, the couple broke up and Yamagata relocated in Paris where he started to earn his living by painting.
The debut solo exhibition of the artist’s watercolours and oil colours took place in Vienna in 1973. The following year Yamagata presented his laser installation at a theatre in Paris.
At the end of the 1970s, the artist moved to Los Angeles and started to incorporate silkscreen colours in his creations.
Among the most significant projects of the next decade were the work for the Air & Space Bicentennial (1983), posters for the 1984 Olympics, a painting for the hundredth memorial anniversary of the Statue of Liberty (1986), the Australia foundation memorial (1988), and the hundredth anniversary of the Eiffel Tower in 1988. The same year, Hiro Yamagata portrayed U.S. President Ronald Reagan and along with Jack Nicklaus began to work on the golf series.
The beginning of the 1990s was marked by the publication of a book with the artists’ works called YAMAGATA. The texts for the edition were provided by Arnold Schwarzenegger. That same year, 1990, the artist had a solo show at Mexico City National Museum of Art. Till the beginning of the twenty-first century Hiro Yamagata worked on such projects as a celebration of 200 years of emigration to America (1990), the Freedom Campaign in Berlin (1990), the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World (1991), the 3rd IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Osaka (1991), the Barcelona Olympics (1992), Kyoto 1200 year celebration (1992) and the Atlanta Olympics (1995).
Despite his activity as a painter and artist, Yamagata released in 1999 a documentary on Beat Generation called The Source demonstrated at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and New York. The artist also took part in many exhibitions, including Earthly Paradise in Hakone, Venice, Monte Carlo, Montecatini in 1995, in Stockholm, Vienna and Rome three following years. More laser installations appeared this time, among others were Element-A Laser Installation at the Fred Hoffman Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture of Light presented at the First St. Bridge in Los Angeles in 1998. A year later, American Lips show was held at the Marlborough Gallery in New York. Besides, Yamagata participated again in one more anniversary, the hundredth of the White House foundation.
During the 2000s, Hiro Yamagata enlarged his collection of laser shows by a group exhibition, An Active Life, at Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Solar System Installations, Project 1 at Yamagata Studio in Malibu, both in 2000. That year, the artist also designed the Grammy Awards. Other laser installations of the period included NGC6093 at Ace Gallery in New York (2001), Photon 999 at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, Quantum Induction at Pepperdine University (2002) and the collaboration with NASA named “Art&SPACE exhibition – Hiro Yamagata and the world of NASA” at Yokohama Seaport in 2003.
Two years later, Hiro Yamagata used his creative laser imagination to recreate the damaged statue of the Buddha at the Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan. The artist took part at the laser installations at Geffen contemporary museum in Los Angeles, at METTRIPPIN with his Theory at the exhibition called Six, Earth, Water, Fire and Air Festival in the Castle in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2005, Hiro Yamagata returned to his movie activity as an executive producer of documentary film named Sketches of Frank Gehry by Sydney Pollack. The following couple of years, the artist had such exhibitions as Air at the Los Angeles Torrance Art Museum, an installation called Sculptor of Light at Buschlen Mowatt Galleries in Palm Desert, both in 2006, and Transient at Gehry Partners in Los Angeles in 2007 where the artist presented India ink drawings on canvas.
Hiro Yamagata now lives and works in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Accordian Player
Very Special Celebration
A Path Through the Forest
Toys
Balloon Race
Cycling
Snow Song
Four Citie Suite, Tokyo
Concert In The Park
Robbers II
Hedge Trimmer
Castle Festival
Four Cities Suite
Stargazer
Snow Castle
Robbers
Opening a Сafe
Rainbow
River Landscape
Father and Sons
Summer Museum
Four Seasons, Winter
Snowfire
Magician
Collector
Circus In The Square
Los-Angeles-s the Place
Pepe
Impressionists
Noah's Ark
American Train
Fallen Leaves
Snowy Night Swing
Air Show
Country Club
Fallen Leaves
Key Largo City Lights
United States Consitution
An American in Paris
Jeanne d'Arc
Dream of Disney
Metro
Perrier
Exhibition
St. Lazare Station
Grand Prix
Raindrops
Tinkerbell, Tokyo Disneyland's 15th Anniversary
Rainy Day
Notre Dame
Serenade
Finish Line
Four Cities Suite, Los Angeles
Miss Paris
Portrait of Elizabeth Taylor
Telephone
Centieme Anniversaire
At a Nice Spot
Bubbles
Normandies
Bamiyan Laser System installation
Marriage
Red Castle
Poet
Concert in the City
Balloon Wedding
Tour de France
Vacance
Tower at Dusk
Courtyard Fountain
Moulin Rouge
Sky Cycles
Once Upon a Time
Green Dolphins
Rites of Spring
A Day at the Fair
Express
Museum
A successful artist and designer, Hiro Yamagata was involved in various charity events. So, in 1987, the artist created the Yamagata Foundation which organized charity events for physically disadvantaged people. Moneys Yamagata had from the sales of his Fireworks were donated to the International Red Cross Society in order to help the victims of the San Francisco Earthquake. In 1993, Yamagata took part at Very Special Arts charity art event.
Despite, Hiro Yamagata supported a poet Gregory Corso providing him with a monthly stipend since 1992.
Quotes from others about the person
"...Hiro Yamagata has uncovered something simple but profound, a model of the spark of creativity." Walter Robinson, artist and former editor-in-chief of ArtNet Magazine
He is a former American professional golfer.
