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Tadanori YOKOO: Photograph exhibition
Events
Written by KALONSNET Editor   
Published: October 26 2009

”Hibara village" (2009); courtesy of the artist and NISHIMURA GALLERY copy right(c) Tadanori YOKOO

Since Yokoo Tadanori started his career in the field of graphic design in 1960’s, he also has been active in diverse field including theatre, movie and music, and has been always at the cutting edge of the age. In 1981, he declared that he would define himself as a painter, and since then he has been turning himself on canvas. Yokoo’s paintings are usually hard to put in a type. In his paintings, he spontaneously brings his interests or personal memories of his life and let them narratively coexist on one stage in a surrealistic way. Once they are given each of their own places in a picture, they are sublimed with ambiguous wit with some "kitsch" caricature and metaphor. Naturally compatible of affable popularity and borderless psychedelia, Yokoo’s works are now recognized internationally, and known as one of the most influential Japanese artist of this time. In recent years, Foundation Cartier, Paris, held his solo exhibition in 2006, and numbers of retrospectives are held in different venues to introduce his diverse career over 40 years. Since Yokoo met the Y-Junction at the model shop he went frequently in his childhood in his native place Nishiwaki, Hyogo, “Y-Junctions” became very important subject for him as he has been painting the Y-Junctions about 100 works till today. He had spent over 2 years for taking photographs of the Y-Junctions. In this exhibition, about the 90 photographs of the Y-Junctions are exhibited in various sizes and styles without restraint. This is a really new art for Yokoo’s world. We hope you will enjoy the Y －Junction by Yokoo. Coincidently, his first book of photographs “TOKYO Y-JUNCTIONS” is published, and selling at the gallery. Yokoo’s solo Exhibition “What’s yours is mine. What’s mine is mine.” is being held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, from 1st August to 3rd November in this year. * The text provided by Nishimura Gallery.

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Last Updated on October 20 2009
 

Editor's Note by Satoshi KOGANEZAWA

With the concept of regarding the essence of Tadanori Yokoo’s art as “incompleteness”, this exhibition shows us Tadanori Yokoo’s creations focusing on his various and dynamic creative styles using which he has been making works inspired by a wide range of things. For example, you can see one of Yokoo’s past creations displayed next to a recent work based on this previous piece. There is another work that extracts elements from a Rousseau creation, and it is shown together with an image of the original work (the original work itself is not displayed). In addition, you can find some carefully planned ideas in the display forms of this exhibition. For instance, next to the “Y Junction” series, the image of their creating scenes is being aired, and paintings of waterfalls and some objets d’art (small artworks) are displayed casually in each exhibition room. The display space is composed of some relatively small rooms, which may give you a compact image of this exhibition. Nonetheless, I am sure you will spend some quality time there. By the way, the “Morikage Kusumi Exhibition - The 50th anniversary of the opening of Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art” (26/Sep/2009-25/Oct/2009) is being held in Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, located approximately ten minutes’ walk from the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Ishikawa. This exhibition provides us with an opportunity to encounter good pieces which were made by past artists who succeeded in enhancing the quality of their works by actively referring to paintings drawn by Chinese and Japanese creators. It would be really regrettable to let such an opportunity to pass on the grounds that this is not a “modern art” exhibition. I highly recommend that you visit this exhibition together with the “Tadanori Yokoo Incomplete” if you get the chance. These two exhibitions have one thing in common in that they show exhibits created by artists who have established their own creative styles by extracting and interpreting past creations in exceptional ways. (Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)


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