Susumu Endo

Susumu Endo was born in 1933 in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture. He began studying design at Musashino Art College in 1960 and completed his training at the Kuwasawa Design School in 1962. Trained as a graphic designer, he first worked in commercial design before producing his initial lithographs in 1979.

Endo produced lithographs by manipulating photographic imagery, initially working with large offset machines. His early works focused on ordinary objects such as pencils, bottles, light bulbs, and eggs, which he transformed into graphic compositions through photographic processing. In the early 1990s he moved from industrial equipment to a personal computer, broadening his practice to include landscapes and natural motifs. Nature became central to his prints, inspired in part by his travels to Finland, where the forests and lakes shaped his imagery. He often combined natural elements with the everyday objects from his earlier work, creating layered compositions where grasses, leaves, and trees interact with manufactured forms. In his later series, light itself became a defining element, giving his prints a more ethereal quality while maintaining the structural clarity of his earlier designs.

His work has been exhibited in Japan and internationally and is represented in major public collections including the British Museum in London, the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum of Cracow, and the São Paulo Museum of Art. He received prizes at international competitions including the Gabrovo Biennial of Humor and Satire in 1993, the International Print Triennial in Krakow in 1994, and the International Print Triennial of Norway in 1995. In 1999 he received the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Government of Japan, one of the country’s highest honors for contributions to art and culture. Endo passed away in 2024.