Garnering acclaim for his revolutionary designs in underground theater posters in the 1960s, Tadanori Yokoo’s original style – intertwining his intense originality with a dynamic variation in aesthetic – has consistently placed him at the forefront of the era. The breadth of his success is not only confined to design and illustration, but also to theater, film, music, and literature; ever since his “painter’s declaration” in 1981, Yokoo has also moved onto release his paintings, collages, prints, and other works with gusto.
BOOK DESIGN WORKS centers around on the number of “printed works” within Takanori Yokoo’s body of compositions. Bringing together a collection of approximately 250 volumes and magazines from the 1960’s onward, here one can find publications such as “Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets,” “Mikan e no Dasso (Escape to the Unfinished),” “Shonen Magazine,” “Ryuko Tsushin,” and more – all featuring Yokoo’s designs. One could call this a rare opportunity; the exhibition represents a chance to come in touch with his designs in vast quantities, with designs created to magnify the essence of each publication’s contents to their fullest.
The exhibition will also have a variety of goods on sale, including Yokoo’s collection of works containing his posters and prints, postcards, and vintage magazines with Yokoo’s interviews contained within – valuable as records in themselves.
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Born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan in 1936. After holding a solo exhibition at the MoMA in New York in 1972, Yokoo would then go on to display works at biennials in across the world, including in Paris, Venice, and San Paulo. Yokoo has received international acclaim and is the winner of numerous awards, such as the Praemium Imperiale award presented by the Japan Art Association. The Tadanori Yokoo Museum of Contemporary Art opened its doors in Kobe in 2012, with the “Teshima Yokoo House” opening in Teshima, Kagawa Prefecture in 2013.