Susan (1971)

Working in a style which has been called "photographic cubism", Tetsu Okuhara first came into wider public awareness in 1978 with the inclusion of his original maquette for Susan in Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960, an exhibition curated by John Szarkowski at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The fragmentation in Okuhara's work may be explained in part through his displacement as a boy from his home in Los Angeles to an internment camp in Colorado during World War II. A thread throughout much of his work is a sense of history and a journey through time, recalling past experiences, all neatly compartmentalized, yet flowing together to recall a greater whole. The spiritual and altar like quality of many of his works may be influenced by Okuhara's interest in the formalism of Karate combined with his practice of yoga, which together form a more abstract collage effect.

His work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute, Chicago; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others. He has been the recipient of many awards including, two N.E.A. Grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The original maquette for this edition of Susan, 1971 is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York along with an example from this edition of ten.