| Posters from Japan June 18 – Nov. 10, 2002
In very broad terms, since World War II Japanese design has been oscillating between the styles of Zen and the reverberations from Hiroshima. The posters in particular are among the subtlest, most aesthetically pleasing and most refined graphic design works anywhere in the world. The country's own traditions such as its unique script, as well as Western impulses, for example Pop Art, form the backdrop for an inimitable, instantly recognizable set of aesthetics with a highly developed sense of decorative color, effect and concentration of suggestive pictographs. The stylistic range could be summarized as calligraphic expressiveness or Op Art effects, elegance or laconism, sublime temptation or impudent "come-on". This exhibition of works from the Neue Sammlung's collection features a selection of the "100 best Japanese posters from 1949 through 1989", which were judged by five leading Japanese graphic designers and in 1990, in a feat of technological brilliance, printed by Toppan Printing in Tokyo. They include Ryuichi Yamashiro's design for a poster about the protection of trees, which HAP Grieshaber referred to as "the most beautiful poster in the world". |
