GEORGE TSUTAKAWA
"For me, 1960 or thereabouts was a time to take another look at the philosophy and art of the
Orient, particularly Japanese art that I had become familiar with in my youth.
Through my travels and my studies of traditional Japanese Arts, I was able to reaffirm my conviction in the Oriental view
of nature which sees man as one part of nature, a part that must live in harmony with the rest of nature."
"From 1960 on, I attempted to express this relationship between man and nature in my works. My sumi-e
drawings are a direct response to nature; my fountain sculptures are an attempt to unify water, the
life force of the universe that flows in an elusive cyclical course throughout eternity, with an
immutable metal sculpture." --George Tsutakawa
He was born in Seattle in 1910 and spent his teenage years living in Japan. In 1932 Tsutakawa studied
as an art major at the University of Washington with sculptors Dudley Pratt and Alexander Archipenko.
As a sculptor and painter, George Tsutakawa is best known for sixty some public fountains he created
that have been installed in North America and Japan including "Fountain of Wisdom" designed for the
plaza of the main library in downtown Seattle in 1958.
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