The 1,001th Buddha

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sea of Buddha 049 (Triptych), 1995 [sic], image: 94 x 121 in, gelatin silver print in three parts, collection LACMA No, there is another. The 48 photos of 1,000 Buddha statues at Sanjūsangendō that Hiroshi Sugimoto photographed in 1995 used to be Time Exposed (Buddha Series), and then Sea of Buddha. But those similar-but-not-indentical, life-sized Buddhas, standing in 10 tiered rows, actually flank a monumental seated Buddha, a 1,001st Buddha. And it turns out Sugimoto photographed that one, too. I think he showed it for the first time last year at Lisson Gallery in LA, and that’s where the shopaholics on the LACMA collectors committee saw it, and bought it. And thus now LACMA says, “Sea of Buddha is a series of 49 photographs that feature 1,001 statues of bodhisattvas at Sanjūsangendō temple in Kyoto.” Sea of Buddha 049 (Triptych) is somehow listed as being made in 1995. Let’s circle back to that. It is a triptych because it is three gelatin silver prints mounted…