Then and Now
Artist
Tadanori Yokoo
born 1936
Date1991
MediumSilkscreen
Dimensions31 1/2 x 47 in. (80 x 119.4 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.306
DescriptionJapanese graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo became internationally renowned after his 1966 psychedelic poster Koshimaki-Osen appeared in the contemporary section of the 1968 exhibition Word and Image: Posters and Typography from the Graphic Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art 1879–1967 alongside that of artists like Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. In addition, he was commissioned to design the poster for the exhibition itself, in which he featured mouths and an eye in his characteristic fluorescent color scheme to suggest the title of the show. (Four years later, the museum gave him a solo exhibition.) Yokoo also designed posters and album covers for musicians like The Beatles and Miles Davis in a style that combined traditional Japanese motifs and symbols with elements of Pop art and Surrealism, often incorporating collage and photocollage. This 1991 poster, like so much of Yokoo’s imagery, evokes the dizzying bombardment of pop-cultural images he experienced on his walks through the streets of Tokyo with a discordant natural scene, reflecting his efforts to conflate his individual sensibility with the needs of corporate advertising. “Advertisements should be interesting, funny, sad, miserable, and at times, frightening,” he stated in a 1997 gallery talk.On View
Not on view
