Keiichi Tanaami: Early Pop Collages, Fragrance of Kogiku
Edited by Kenichi Abe. Text by Hiroko Ikegami, Shinji Nanzuka, Keiichi Tanaami.
This collection of collages by Tokyo pop artist Keiichi Tanaami (born 1936) presents a thrilling 1960s barrage of weaponry, superheroes and movie stars. Tanaami was on the edges of Tokyo's postwar avant-garde, and a 1968 encounter with Andy Warhol spurred him to explore mediums ranging from posters and album covers to prints and animations. The variety, skill and number of these works surprise all the more since collage has not been widely known as Tanaami's favored medium—and indeed these collages, undated but believed to have been made in the late '60s and early '70s, were never intended to be exhibited (unlike Tanaami's better-known illustrations and animations). Text by Tanaami accompanies the more than 200 collages in this bewildering collection.
"Untitled Collagebook 03_12" (c. 1971) is reproduced from 'Keiichi Tanaami: Early Pop Collages, Fragrance of Kogiku.'
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"I was tidying up at a warehouse in Setagaya one chilly day in 2012 during a heavy rain when I came upon a large stack of paper wrapped in old newspaper. I had no memory of these dusty old newspapers. When I peeled them open, there appeared more than 100 brightly colored collages. I had no idea as to how, when, or for what reason this group of works had been made, and though these were unmistakably works of my own, for a moment I could not even fathom why they would have lain dormant here, abandoned in a dark warehouse." So begins Keiichi Tanaami's essay in this exciting new collection of the artist's early Pop collages, which derive from materials left behind by Tanaami's uncle, who was killed during Japan's war with Burma. Tanaami describes a bookcase packed with photographs of Hitler and Mussolini, "photos of nude women in gymnastic formation and of nude men, and bizarre picture postcards whose surfaces were covered in embossed swastikas, which you could feel when you ran your fingers over them." This particular image (c. 1971) features the artist's one-time neighbor, the former-geisha-turned-actress Kogiku Hanayagi. Of all the collages, it induced the strongest sense of nostalgia, as a chance meeting with Hanayagi had provided Tanaami's "first conscious awareness of the opposite sex." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.5 x 11.75 in. / 272 pgs / 238 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $85.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $115 ISBN: 9783960980568 PUBLISHER: Walther König, Köln AVAILABLE: 11/20/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: FLAT40 PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AFR
Keiichi Tanaami: Early Pop Collages, Fragrance of Kogiku
Published by Walther König, Köln. Edited by Kenichi Abe. Text by Hiroko Ikegami, Shinji Nanzuka, Keiichi Tanaami.
This collection of collages by Tokyo pop artist Keiichi Tanaami (born 1936) presents a thrilling 1960s barrage of weaponry, superheroes and movie stars. Tanaami was on the edges of Tokyo's postwar avant-garde, and a 1968 encounter with Andy Warhol spurred him to explore mediums ranging from posters and album covers to prints and animations. The variety, skill and number of these works surprise all the more since collage has not been widely known as Tanaami's favored medium—and indeed these collages, undated but believed to have been made in the late '60s and early '70s, were never intended to be exhibited (unlike Tanaami's better-known illustrations and animations). Text by Tanaami accompanies the more than 200 collages in this bewildering collection.
