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| Photography/graphic design |
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Posters from Japan
Even today in very broad terms the opposing worlds of the reverberations from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and the meditative peacefulness of Zen still dominate the art of posters in Japan. In the 19th century the popular medium of Japanese wood engravings also included theater announcements – and were to a certain extent posters. The quite unique posters, which in Japan accompanied the political and cultural renaissance following World War II was, however, based less on these roots as on a new interpretation of the ancient art of writing. In the 1940s and 1950s for example this became evident in works by Yoshio Hayakawa, (Kimono Show), Takashi Kono, (Tea Ceremony) and Hiromu Hara (typography exhibition). With his 1955 poster "Forest – Grove", early evidence of the environmental protection movement, Ryuichi Yamashiro bridged the gulf to Concrete Art and Concrete Poetry through poetically multiplying a mere two characters in varying sizes, whereas Yusaku Kamekura's advertising shots for Nikon cameras already reveal hints of Op Art and he certainly paved the way for abstract, geometric posters. The series Kamekura designed in the early 1960s for the 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics represented a milestone in Japanese poster design: from the logo itself, which is as simple as it is self-confident, adopting the national flag (the symbol of the sun) to the skilful inclusion of photography, which was used here for the first time in the history of the Olympic poster. Even at this time Japanese posters were being "discovered" by an international audience and becoming ever more famous. Major names were emerging that are still influential today. These include, for example, Kazumasa Nagai, for his science fiction-like visions of outer space, Ikko Tanaka, who, influenced among other things by Bauhaus, discovered radical clarity and simplicity, Tadanori Yokoo and his private mythology composed of quotations from the history of art, wood engraving illustrations and Pop Art etc., Shigeo Fukuda, a master of symbolic abbreviation and humorous teasing: The spiral on his Kyogen poster, which culminates in the typical Japanese tabi socks is indeed dancing – like the actors in the tomfoolery in the Kyogen plays; Makoto Nakamura with his, at the time, ground-breaking, mysteriously enticing depiction of beauty; and – last but not least – Mitsuo Katsui who, with his "kinetic compositions" (for design student, 1966), years of experience with computer graphics (10 to the power of 64, 1985) through to the most subtle of montages can be considered a symbol for the variety, graphic richness and the extraordinary printing skills of Japanese posters. |
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