In the history of Japanese art, Tadanori Yokoo stands alone.
Throughout his more than 40-year career, the enigmatic graphic designer and painter has maintained ties to both the commercial world and Japan's avant-garde.
Yokoo's work is known for its use of bold colors and its montage of eclectic images. "It's as if he's representing the subconscious or the inner mind's eye, where you have all of these competing images taken from different points in time," said Chelsea Foxwell, Assistant Professor in Art History and the College.
An exhibition of Yokoo's poster works will be on display on the first floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library from March 29-June 15. Foxwell will give a lecture on Yokoo's work at the opening reception for the exhibition at 6:30 p.m. April 1.
Born in 1936, Yokoo came of age during Japan's tumultuous postwar period. He worked at the prestigious Nippon Design Center before becoming an independent designer and artist. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s after creating a series of posters featuring the novelist and poet Yukio Mishima, and gained international attention following a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1972.
"He redefined what it means to be somebody who supposedly takes the client's message and visualizes it," Foxwell said.
The exhibition features posters and advertisements made between 1997 and 2005. These recent posters reflect Yokoo's interest in Japanese art history, and incorporate images from the 19th century, including Katsushika Hokusai's famed wood-block print, "The Breaking Wave off Kanagawa."
"In his later works you see more of a self-conscious reference to art history, taking it to another degree of self-referentiality," Foxwell said.
Although it incorporates the psychedelic motifs of the 1960s and '70s, Yokoo's work is not associated with a particular school or movement. "He really is kind of on his own," Foxwell said. "He's one of those people who has been able to preserve their outsider status without being isolated from the art world."
The exhibition is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation Toronto, the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Chicago Library, and the Consulate General of Japan at Chicago.
To RSVP for the reception, please visit http://ceas.wufoo.com/forms/tadanori-yokoo-exhibition-opening-reception/.
—Prof. Chuan He
