These are incredible. He's got another 30 or so on the website linked above. Just amazing stuff.

I love those paintings.

Cool, Don.

I have to reread some of your film noir stuff. Is it still around?

The man's name was Leonardo. His last name was not "Da Vinci," despite whatever silliness may have appeared in books by Dan Brown.

So will these go into a museum at some point, or will he sell them? A little from column A, a little from column B?

I thought they were great, by the way. I liked the other work on his site, too.

Thanks for that.

Outstanding. Is there an exhibition catalogue available for those of us on the East Coast?

Clarence Williams III and Link Hayes just said "cool"

Clarence Williams III and Link Hayes just said "cool"

Shouldn't that be Pete, Linc and Julie say "solid"...?

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trevise

Thanks, Don. Great artwork. I also really like the Stefan Mart art; thanks for that link, too.

Yes, great artwork and a nice write-up. I'll try to get to LACC to see the exhibit.

Sakoguchi's interest in the history of baseball's social context makes me think that he'd be interested in "Sleeping Tigers", a documentary about a Japanese-Canadian baseball team that won the Canadian Pacific Northwest championship prior to WW II, only to have its players dispersed into Canadian WW II internment camps (Canada's racism and internment policies, based on what the film presents, seem to have been even more vicious than the USA's; some of the Japanese-Canadian immigrant communities were basically wiped out by the war, whereas the Japanese-American communities in places such as Seattle and Los Angeles were able to rapidly rebuild).

Some info on the film is here.

The club a few years ago was voted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, partly in tribute to their championships, but I think also in tribute to the social obstacles they had to overcome.

Canadian baseball and orange crate art might not seem to be a plausible mix, but the story of the Asahi baseball team fits in with the themes Sakoguchi has put into his artwork.

Wow. That's all I can say about the paintings. Wow.

I saw the documentary on the Asahi several years ago; I immediately named one of the teams in my Strat-O-Matic league after them...

"...and other knee-jerk topics that people in present-day America use as tools of divisiveness and demonization."

You mean, sort of like artists and their constant attempts to "epatee le bourgeoisie"?

Damn those artists and their social commentary!

"Damn those artists and their social commentary!"

And it's so fresh, too: just like orange juice.

As Robert Hughes once said about some particularly droll bit of kitsch art, "Heavy social commentary, this."

I bought one of the paintings ("Georgia Pit"). $1600+tax. I wish I could afford several of them because they're incredible, much better seen in person than on the web. I hope the Hall of Fame grabs a few of these.

Someone asked if there was a catalogue available from the show. Unfortunately not. I told Mrs. Sakoguchi I would like to see the paintings reproduced and collected in a book. She promised me their web site would be updated to include more scans of the artworks from the show. You can order signed prints of the paintings, but they're pricey (over $100).

When I stopped by last week, around 30 paintings had already been sold. A local television station (KCAL 9) did a great story about Sakoguchi and the show, and it aired today. They did a good job collecting video footage of some of the incidents and people depicted in the paintings (like the forced removal of residents at Chavez Ravine). So interest in this work is only going to increase.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c354/caseydmac/bb_sakoguchi_05.jpg

<ahref="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c354/caseydmac/bb_sakoguchi_05.jpg">Georgia Pit (Ty Cobb)</a>

http://www.winterballlacc.blogspot.com

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c354/caseydmac/bb_sakoguchi_05.jpg

So will these go into a museum at some point, or will he sell them?

Just out of curiosity, how do you think things "go into museums"?

While I'm late at finding this thread, I was curious about two things:

1. did anyone notice that it was implied that Jose Canseco was injecting McGwire? (see rounded skin with jock strap showing of the latter, if I'm seeing that right)

2. Did Sakoguchi address Marge Schott somewhere? between her racism and his interest in calling out the history of prejudice in baseball, I would think she would provide ample ammunition for someone of his creativity.

Thanks for the writeup, Don.