Tadanori Yokoo

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EL PASO MUSEUM OF ART SEPTEMBER 11 – OCTOBER 14, 2015

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After World War II, many countries were feeling the secondary effects of the war. Japan was left in a very unfortunate situation: their major economic capital was destroyed and thousands of homes in Tokyo were abandoned. However, the country took advantage of this situation to reinvent itself. This new shift marked a turn in Japan’s cultural history, moving toward modernism, advances in technology, lifestyle and attitude change, and a new spin on art. According to the author of 12 Japanese Masters, Maggie K. Saiki states “Japan was reinventing itself, rising from the phoenix ashes of World War II.” Taking the western lifestyle as an influence, people were changing their ideals, the way they dressed, acted, ate, and even the way they spent money. The reaction that began this new behavior was the new architecture, art, technology, and the rejection of things traditionally “Japanese.” New urban landscapes rose up, along with new roadways and railways, new social mores, and the insatiable desire to succeed by imitation and education. The rise of industrialism in Japan allowed graphic design to become a major profession. Japanese post-war design was ultimately a way for the country to show off to the West by applying western style while keeping the traditional Japanese art theory. This was done in hopes of becoming better than the West. The pop art, avant-garde and psychedelic movements of the 1960s influenced designer Tadanori Yokoo. He was inspired by these trends in art and created his own style. His art is thought-provoking, complex, unique and daring which easily makes him one of the most compelling artists of Post-War Japan. He is possibly the greatest major influence on contemporary poster design. He broke boundaries and created a world that was uniquely his.

Atomic bomb at Nagasaki, Japan, August 8, 1945.

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Yokoo became a rebel and a celebrity, using his graphic

His first notable work, a self-titled poster at the Persona group’s

works to pay homage to other celebrities, alive and

1965 joint exhibition, attracted attention because it diverged

dead, from the sublime to the banal. As Philip B. Meggs

from contemporary graphic styles. This shocking poster featured

acknowledges in his book History of Graphic Design, “His

a hanged man against a blue sky with red rays emanating from

work replaces the order and logic of constructivism with the

a rising sun. His name appears at the top; the bottom corners

restless vitality of Dada and fascination with mass media,

hold childhood photographs and the simple ironic statement:

popular art, and comic books.” In his prodigious output of

“Having reached a climax at the age of 29, I was dead.” The

posters in the 1960s and 1970s, he assembled images from

rising sun motif, considered old-fashioned at the time, recurs

Western art, engravings and tracings of photographs. He

throughout his body of work and has become emblematic of

uses traditional Japanese, as well as Islamic decoration,

“Yokoo style” and an international symbol of Japanese pop art.

and psychedelic effects on backgrounds of graduated hues.

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Left to right: A la maison de M.Civecawa, 1965; 16th Exhibition of Japan Advertising Artist Club, 1968; The aesthetic of the end, 1966.

Facing page: Tadanori Yokoo, 1965.

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In the mid-1960s, Yokoo rose to prominence through

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His exotic and experimental posters and illustration use

works such as Koshi-maki Osen. These works were certainly

collage, photomontage, and airbrush techniques to explore the

influenced by the psychedelic style happening in the United

impact of Western popular culture on Japanese society. Due to

States at the time. As a leading Japanese designer, Yokoo became

this, his intuitive and potent mix of images from East and West

obsessed with psychedelic design. The vibrant and contrasting

has attracted international recognition. Well known musicians

colors, free forms, extreme stylization, repetition of symbols

like The Beatles; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Carlos Santana;

and motifs, and interesting use of typography drew him in.

Earth Wind and Fire; and Cat Stevens asked him to design their

He took these traits and introduced Japan to his own kind of

posters and album covers. He created posters reflecting the

psychedelic style. In the end, Yokoo influenced postmodern

time, culture and their music. Yokoo’s design for the Santana

America with his blends of controlled anarchy, brilliant palette,

Lotus cover received multiple awards at the 6th Brno Biennal

neo-surrealist compositions, and graphic wit.

in 1974.

Also during the mid-1960s, Yokoo used the comic-book

During the late 1960s and in the beginning of the 1970s,

technique of black line drawing as a vessel to contain flat areas

Yokoo’s range of art and printing techniques became to act

of photomechanical color. This technique was inspired by the

spontaneous. His Sixth International Biennial Exhibitions of Prints

Push Pin Studios, a New York based design firm. He often

in Tokyo poster combines a variety of techniques. These include

collaged photographic elements and translated traditional

a halftone gr oup portrait in pink, a sky with an airbrushed

Japanese images into the pop art idiom. He created an

brown band across the top, and a red one at the horizon. There

alternative to the European modernism that predominated

is also calligraphic writing on vertical bands, as found in earlier

in the work of the preceding generation of Japanese designers

Asian art, and a monumental montage figure towering over a

such as Yusaku Kamekura.

lighthouse on a bank across the water.

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Clockwise from top left: Koshimaki-Osen, 1966; Santana Lotus, 1974; The Beatles, 1972; Sixth International Biennial Exhibitions of Prints in Tokyo, 1968; The Wonders of Life on Earth, 1965.

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Clockwise from top left: A Ballad Dedicated to the Pinky-Cutting Ceremony, 1966; National Bunraku Theater, 1971; Greeting, 1972; Exhibition poster, 1973.

One of his biggest inspirations was Yukio Mishima, an author

surrounded by spattered red blood, a reference to the finger

who wrote The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and whom Yokoo

cutting ceremony of some Japanese cults. Mishima was part of

felt an instant spiritual connection. They both held the same

a samurai cult and participated in a suicidal ritual plunging a

type of mindset and thinking and were also concerned with the

sword into his stomach. The author’s death caused Yokoo to

connection between life and art. During the 1970s, after Yukio

became fearful of death and increasingly fascinated by Indian

Mishima passed away, Yokoo’s work changed unexpectedly and

culture, Buddhism, UFOs, and extraterrestrial civilizations.

was not a reflection on life. He produced many posters of the

Because of this, he began to create collages using images of the

late novelist. One called A Ballad Dedicated to the Pinky-Cutting

universe and various religious, and mystical symbols. Shifting

Ceremony showed Mishima beneath a hand with a finger cut off

values and a rejection of tradition find symbolic expression in

surrounded by spattered red blood, a reference to the finger

Yokoo’s uninhibited graphics, gaining him a unique reputation.

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Tadanori Yokoo’s work is instantly recognizable and individual, and also deeply personal while employing his own themes, pictures, and references to himself and his anti-modernist

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collage style. His work crosses the border between design and fine art, incorporating influences such as spiritualism, Japanese aesthetics, and the psychedelic posters of the 1960s, science fiction and comic art. His inspirations were an important aspect in his works because they provided him with many ways by which to open himself up and show his passions. He changed graphic design in the process while exceeding himself in creativity. He also became a great inspiration for other designers. An example is Sean Hamilton and Lindell Serrin’s posters for the Seattle Sounders FC, the use of collage images and bright colors has a resemblance to Yokoo’s work. Also Brian Gartsiger and Juan Carlos Pagan’s work for the New York City Ballet which uses a pop art as the main theme, thus proving that Tadanori Yokoo’s influence is still alive today.

On the right: Sean Hamilton and Lindell Serrin, Rave Green, 2013; Brian Gartsiger and Juan Carlos Pagan, New York City Ballet, 2013.

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