CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/28/2014

Keiichi Tanaami: Killer Joe's Early Times 1965-73

"The term 'psychadelic' is frequently used in writings on my work. I think the album jacket I designed for Jefferson Airplane's After Bathing at Baxter's in 1967 is where that started, but I have never actually used any term like that myself. The monstrosity of the war I experienced as a child thoroughly wrecked my young mind and spirit, and I think I entered adulthood without ever regaining a normal perspective. I think that perhaps the incoming flares in the dark, the ominous light of the firebombs, the searchlights that illuminated the bomber planes, the heat and pressure given off from the explosions—that almost hallucinatory drama that took place in the darkness was perhaps a sort of 'psychadelic' for me. If there are people who get a hallucinatory or psychedelic sense from my paintings, perhaps that is based on the unimaginable experience of war. The light from the searchlights cutting through the bright red night sky left deep scars in my young eyes and heart." Text excerpt and featured image, "Collage Book" (1969) are reproduced from Killer Joe's Early Times 1965-73, Walther Koenig's new monograph on Japanese avant garde graphic artist Keiichi Tanaami.