Sleepy Sea

Sleepy Sea is a 1953 gelatin silver print by Japanese photographer Kansuke Yamamoto.[1] It depicts a silhouetted head in profile containing a necklace, a marble, a compass, a pocket watch, and a toy gun inscribed "Japan".[2] Art historian Amanda Maddox relates the work to René Magritte's 1928 painting The Reckless Sleeper and uses it as an example of Yamamoto's incorporation of Surrealist imagery and themes into the context of modern Japan.[2]

Description

The 2013 Getty catalogue reproduces Sleepy Sea as plate 66 and gives its dimensions as 37.6 × 31 cm.[1] It lists the print as being in a private collection and entrusted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.[1] A 2017 exhibition checklist gives the dimensions as 37.5 × 30.7 cm.[3]

Maddox identifies Magritte's The Reckless Sleeper as the work that probably inspired Sleepy Sea.[2] In Magritte's painting, a man sleeps in a box that hovers above an amorphous form resembling a tombstone or stone tablet, with objects including a bowler hat, a candle, and an apple set into the form.[2] In Sleepy Sea, the sleeping figure is absent, while a silhouetted head in profile takes the place of Magritte's stone-like form.[2] Objects are placed within the silhouette in a manner comparable to those in the lower part of Magritte's painting.[2] Maddox describes the necklace and marble as apparently arbitrary, while treating the compass, pocket watch, and toy gun as more deliberate symbols.[2]

Interpretation

Maddox suggests that the compass may refer to a line by André Breton linking Surrealism with the unconscious.[2] The compass has no needle, which she reads as indicating a lack of direction.[2]

The toy gun bears the word "Japan" and appears inside the silhouetted head.[2] Maddox interprets the gun and its placement as implying Yamamoto's dissatisfaction with the state of mind of the Japanese people and their acceptance of what she describes as the United States military forces' postwar occupation.[2] She also relates the photograph to Breton's discussion of the dreamer and the objects around him in the first Surrealist Manifesto.[2] Maddox reads the title Sleepy Sea as suggesting that the silhouetted figure is adrift in a dream.[2] She describes the work as a pointed commentary on Japanese society and writes that Yamamoto used Surrealism as a means of provocation.[2]

Exhibition history

Sleepy Sea was reproduced in the catalogue accompanying the 2013 exhibition Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto at the J. Paul Getty Museum.[1][4]

The work was shown in Japanese Surrealist Photography at Taka Ishii Gallery Tokyo from January 14 to February 4, 2017.[5][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Keller, Judith; Maddox, Amanda, eds. (2013). Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-60606-132-9.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Maddox, Amanda (2013). "Disobedient Spirit: Kansuke Yamamoto and His Engagement with Surrealism". In Keller, Judith; Maddox, Amanda (eds.). Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. pp. 195–196. ISBN 978-1-60606-132-9.
  3. 1 2 "Japanese Surrealist Photography: List of Works" (PDF). Contemporary Art Library. Taka Ishii Gallery. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-08-19.
  4. ↑ "Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto". J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved 2026-08-19.
  5. ↑ "Group Exhibition "Japanese Surrealist Photography"". Taka Ishii Gallery. 2017. Retrieved 2026-08-19.
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