Lot 351: SHOJI UEDA (BORN 1913)

Self-portrait with gorilla mask, 1975
gelatin silver print, printed 1982
signed in pencil (in the margin); signed, titled, dated in pencil and credit stamp (on the verso)
11 1/4 x 11 1/4 in. (28.5 x 28.5cm.)

Shoji Ueda is perhaps best known for his series of Tottori dune images, in which he posed a number of disparate people - a nude, musicians, children, artists and, here, himself wearing a gorilla mask - on the beach near his home. Lot 351 is a good example of Ueda's work; his uncompromising spatial arrangement is tempered by unexpected, whimsical elements.