Morganmobile: Tools of the Artist

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Whatever subject is represented here (a trio of dancers? the Three Graces?), it plays a secondary role to the object itself: a roughly trimmed sheet of photographic printing paper. Ei-Q was trained in both western-style painting and photography. He coined the term photo-dessins (photo-sketches) for improvised prints such as this one, which he exposed in the darkroom, using a light pen, paper cutouts, and loose-mesh fabric. In place of the mechanical precision of the camera, he welcomed accidental effects of action, like those that characterize the mixed-media canvases of Surrealist painters such as Max Ernst and André Masson.

Ei-Q (Ei Kyū, born Sugita Hideo) (1911–1960), Untitled (Photo-Dessin), ca. 1950. Gelatin silver print, 11 5/8 x 9 5/8 inches, irregular. Purchased on the Charina Endowment Fund, 2017.291. © 2020 Estate of Ei-Q