An Interview with Toru Sugita

The current Caffe Museo exhibition features black-and-white etchings and aquatints of familiar Bay Area sites by artist Toru Sugita. Originally from Japan, Sugita has distinguished himself in the graphic art technique famously employed by Goya. Here he is in conversation with Maria Medua of the Gallery. His work is on view at the Caffe Museo at the Main Museum thru April 17.

Toru Sugita, Curving Street, 2000

Artists Gallery Toru, first I want to congratulate you on this body of work. I have been admiring your black-and-white etchings for several years now. I have to confess a real love for the process – the rich black ink on the white paper – I suppose my love of printed books has something to do with it. Do you feel the process is more precious given the rise of digital media and output?

­Toru Sugita For me intaglio print including etching is very 3-dimentional process. The matrix (etched copper plate) has various grooves and surface texture. Depth of groove and levels of texture determine the thickness of ink when printed. An intaglio print holds various thickness of ink on paper, which is not the case of digital print such as inkjet and laser. It is almost sculpture. My interest towards space and architecture is constantly fed by this aspect of intaglio printmaking.

Artists Gallery  Can you briefly explain the etching process and why it continues to appeal to fine artist despite the availability of faster easier ways to make multiple images?

­Toru Sugita Etching was invented in 16th century as a means of putting designs on armor, and then brought to printmaking process. More than metal engraving, etching can create the appearance of a spontaneous sketch or a laborious study. First, metal is covered with asphalt ground. When the artist scratches lines by needles, ground gets removed and the metal surface gets exposed to etchant bath. Etchant bites the metal and makes a crease, which can hold ink to print. The longer the metal gets exposed, the deeper the crease gets bitten, which creates darker lines when printed. Artists like Rembrandt exploited this medium, using lines to make various tones of light and dark. This medium became popular among artists to depict deep space in rise of atmospheric perspective.

The process of printmaking is physically satisfying to artists.  Dealing with physicality of material feeds to creativity. One of my students of this semester is an established graphic designer. He is from Fine Arts background and has been working in graphic design field. He decided to take my etching class because his work is becoming less physical every year and felt something missing.

The same reason painters paint, printmakers make prints from their creativity. Then why some artists choose printmaking, rather than painting? Printmaking is a process oriented medium. Artist has to plan few steps ahead for any result, rather than direct paint on canvas or draw on paper. In a way this is close to farming or cooking. If you are such person, printmaking is more exciting and enjoyable. There are other reasons artist choose printmaking media. Some artists choose because of multiplicity of printed image. Some artists choose printmaking for love of paper. Some likes shared studio environment. Where print studio exists, there is always some society. Skills and socialism printmaking provides is very important for America for future (that is what I insist to college administrators).

For me, printmaking process is reminiscent of the relationship between light and shadow. In the process of printmaking there is a plate, but the plate itself is not the artwork. The print that is generated is a secondary image – like a shadow.

Artists Gallery  Why do you choose to work in black and white?

­Toru Sugita Etching and aquatint help me express my interest towards light and shadow by using rich tones of black and white. The graphic nature of black and white leads me to lines and shapes found in architectural elements. Once I eliminated color from my work, I found myself drawn to the exploration of space itself. My work became about the physicality of three dimensional space.

Artists Gallery   You’ve chosen San Francisco as your subject matter – what, if anything, makes this city visually distinct?

­Toru Sugita The city is constructed on such a unique geological environment. Houses are built on hilly streets by ocean. Angular lines contrast vertical and horizontal lines. This becomes emphasized when strong clear sunlight hits the city, casting shadows of the architecture as extension of them. I find myself in the spaces enjoying architecture delineated by sunlight. Buildings and their shadows are layered and blended together creating momentary beauty of colors and shapes.

The city of San Francisco has been constantly transforming throughout history. When I moved from my native Japan to San Francisco in 1990, I witnessed the booming economy of the mid-1990s. It was marked by a flurry of new constructions replacing older buildings and older styles of architecture. The industrial part of the city is now half gone and fewer old buildings remain. These old buildings look suspended between ideology, history, and the future, while the cityscape of the San Francisco Bay Area constantly changes under development. My attachment to the ephemeral quality of light and shadow is seen with the transiency of old architectural sites and ever changing space.

Toru Sugita, A Street From Bernal Heights, 2000

Artists Gallery We will be featuring you work in 2013. Are you going to work on similar themes?

­Toru Sugita For Caffe Museo exhibit, I focused on large scale black and white etching of Bay Area Shapes. For Artists Gallery show in 2013, I would like not to limit myself to Bay Area theme. I would like to include other parts of US and world such as Japan. Also, I have been working on other print media and techniques such as wood engraving, wood block, and color etching. I would like to seek the possibility to include them as well.