SADAO HASEGAWA (1945-1999)
Angels. Ink and graphite on paper. 290x270 mm; 11½x10¾ inches, sheet. 1981. Stamp-signed in Japanese, upper right; dated year, month/day "1981 2/15" lower left. Loose and cornered to matte. Provenance: Private collection, Los Angeles. Hasegawa was a master of homoerotic fetish art, often within fantastical and mystical settings, featuring Indian, Thai, Tibetan Buddhist, African, Japanese, and Balinese elements influenced by his extensive travels. Now recognized as one of the most influential creators of homoerotic art in Japan and throughout the global queer community, Hawegawa's reputation was fairly confined during his lifetime. He was prolific during his short life but commercially limited by his own refusal to distribute his work outside of Japan. His suicide at the age of 54 shocked the art world and his influence might have narrowed even further when his family was prepared to destroy his remaining paintings. But a note he left near his portrait of an earlier queer Japanese writer and victim of suicide, Yukio Mishima, requested that the work he left behind be donated to Gallery Naruyama in Tokyo, who currently holds the majority of his collected works. Aside from their collection and limited appearances in gay magazines, Hasegawa's monograph Paradise Vision (1996 Kochi Studio) has been the main gateway into his works.