The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 24, 2025
Man and Woman #1
1960
(Japanese, b. 1933)
Image: 24.6 x 16.9 cm (9 11/16 x 6 5/8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1993.215
© Eikoh Hosoe
Location: Not on view
Description
Technical discipline, allegory, the tension of opposites, and a lyric sense of design characterize the photographs of Eikoh Hosoe. Fusing the figurative with the abstract, he manipulates cropping, toning, and lighting to create images that are at once intimate and universal meditations. One of Hosoe’s most characteristic series, Man and Woman (1959–60) explores the human figure as both an elegant abstraction and a charged erotic subject. His images convey a theatrical and literary narrative, challenging the repressive moral codes of postwar Japan. The mysterious Man and Woman #1 depicts a heavily made-up Butoh dancer suspending a dead fish in her hand. The photograph’s exaggeration of power roles also suggests an intriguing relationship between female and male, life and death, and man and animal.- “1993 Annual Report.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143–218. Mentioned: p. 163 www.jstor.orgCleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 201
- Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 3, 2004).Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 7/24/04 - 11/3/04. "Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art". No exhibition catalogue.CMA, September 13 - November 27, 1994: "Recent Acquisitions: Prints, Drawings, Photographs," no exhibition catalogue.292 Gallery, New York, New York, Sept. 15-Oct. 16, 1993: "Eikoh Hosoe: Man and Woman, 1959-60"
- {{cite web|title=Man and Woman #1|url=false|author=Eikoh Hosoe|year=1960|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1993.215