George Tsutakawa, sculptor of Waiola Fountain - Beyond Tiki

A aquarj Tiki Socialite SF bay area, CA Joined: Apr 02, 2002 Posts: 1125	A aquarj Posted posted on Wed, Jul 25, 2012 1:21 AM Over on the Locating Tiki thread about the Ala Moana shopping center in Honolulu, Sabu posted an image of the Wailoa Fountain, a modernist sculpture with echoes of Hawaiiana. This was installed by artist George Tsutakawa in 1966, and still stands today. I posted some recent pics over on that thread, like this one... Since I'm a fan of his style, here is some more info about George Tsutakawa. There is an interesting parallel between his life and Isamu Noguchi. Both were born in the US, taken to Japan when they were young, and returned in their teens. This gave them both a feeling of displacement from either culture, and their respective works shared some common themes. Many of Tsutakawa's fountains derive from concepts he first explored with a series of abstract wood sculptures he called "Obos". This name comes from a Himalayan word for the vertical piles of rocks that are traditionally left at the top of a pass to celebrate reaching it. Tsutakawa was interested in symmetry and balance without necessarily implying uniformity, saying, "...to me, it's the hardest thing to do to make something symmetrical and beautiful at the same time." Here's one of his early sculptures, called "Obos #9" from 1957... Another fountain with a similar feeling to the Wailoa one appears on the UCLA campus, installed in 1969, and titled Obos69... A couple more examples of his fountains. This one is called East Cloister Garth (?)... At the dedication of the Fountain of Good Life in Kansas City, 1964, this shows George with his wife Ayame, and two others. He also worked in other media, including sumi ink paintings, and other styles of sculpture. Here is one from 1966, the same year as the Waiola fountain. This is called Eternal Laughter... And here is Tsutakawa in his studio with an assortment of his models for fountains and sculptures, from 1989... Cool story here about his granddaughter Zana Tsutakawa, who was running a fashion design shop in Hawaii at the time of this article in 2005. -Randy

Over on the Locating Tiki thread about the Ala Moana shopping center in Honolulu, Sabu posted an image of the Wailoa Fountain, a modernist sculpture with echoes of Hawaiiana. This was installed by artist George Tsutakawa in 1966, and still stands today. I posted some recent pics over on that thread, like this one...

Since I'm a fan of his style, here is some more info about George Tsutakawa. There is an interesting parallel between his life and Isamu Noguchi. Both were born in the US, taken to Japan when they were young, and returned in their teens. This gave them both a feeling of displacement from either culture, and their respective works shared some common themes.

Many of Tsutakawa's fountains derive from concepts he first explored with a series of abstract wood sculptures he called "Obos". This name comes from a Himalayan word for the vertical piles of rocks that are traditionally left at the top of a pass to celebrate reaching it. Tsutakawa was interested in symmetry and balance without necessarily implying uniformity, saying, "...to me, it's the hardest thing to do to make something symmetrical and beautiful at the same time." Here's one of his early sculptures, called "Obos #9" from 1957...

Another fountain with a similar feeling to the Wailoa one appears on the UCLA campus, installed in 1969, and titled Obos69...

A couple more examples of his fountains. This one is called East Cloister Garth (?)...

At the dedication of the Fountain of Good Life in Kansas City, 1964, this shows George with his wife Ayame, and two others.

He also worked in other media, including sumi ink paintings, and other styles of sculpture. Here is one from 1966, the same year as the Waiola fountain. This is called Eternal Laughter...

And here is Tsutakawa in his studio with an assortment of his models for fountains and sculptures, from 1989...

Cool story here about his granddaughter Zana Tsutakawa, who was running a fashion design shop in Hawaii at the time of this article in 2005.

-Randy

Post #645497 by aquarj on Wed, Jul 25, 2012 1:21 AM