Tadanori Yokoo (横尾忠則, Yoko-o Tadanori) (born 1936, 27 June in Hyogo Prefecture) is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Tadanori Yokoo, born in Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, in 1936, is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo. His early work shows the influence of the New York based Push Pin Studio (Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast in particular) but Yokoo himself cites filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and writer Yukio Mishima as two of his most formative influences.
In the late 1960s he became interested in mysticism and psychedelia, deepened by travels in India. Because his work was so attuned to 1960s pop culture, he has often been (unfairly) described as the "Japanese Andy Warhol" or likened to psychedelic poster artist Peter Max, but Yokoo's complex and multi-layered imagery is intensely autobiographical and entirely original. By the late 60s he had already achieved international recognition for his work and was included in the 1968 "Word & Image" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Four years later MoMA mounted a solo exhibition of his graphic work organized by Mildred Constantine.[1]Shuji Terayama and his theater Tenjo Sajiki. He has also starred as a protagonist in Nagisa Oshima's film Diary of a Shinjuku Thief. Yokoo collaborated extensively with
In 1981 he unexpectedly "retired" from commercial work and took up painting. His career as a fine artist continues to this day with numerous exhibitions of his paintings every year, but alongside this he remains fully engaged and prolific as a graphic designer.
Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadanori_Yokoo
Yokoo Tadanori began producing posters while attending high school in his hometown of Nishiwaki. Then, following stints at the Kobe Shimbun newspaper, the National Advertising Research Center, and after moving to Tokyo in 1960, the Nippon Design Center, Yokoo joined the Japan Advertising Artists Club at the tender age of 22.
In the mid-60s, through his relationships with Juro Kara and Shuji Terayama, Yokoo suddenly rose to prominence through works such as Koshi-maki Osen and La Marie Vison. At the same time, his illustrations for magazines such as Heibon Punch and Hanashi no Tokushu made him a darling of the media.
Yokoo's posters, which while reflecting post-war Japanese society, have been burned into our brains as unforgettable memories of the era. They are also notable for the fact that rather than following foreign trends, they display a unique sense of Japanese graphic design.
Yokoo's creative activities later expanding to include a wide range of fields such as painting and literature, but as he continued to produce posters throughout his career, the poster format functions as the core of his work as an artist.
In this exhibition, we present over 800 posters from the museum's collection along with invaluable documents from the artist's private collection in a full-scale introduction to Yokoo's overwhelming body of creative work that stretches over half a century.
Found Here: http://www.nmao.go.jp/english/b3_exhi_beginning_yokoo.html
(b Nishiwaki, Hyogo Prefect., 1936). Japanese stage designer, printmaker and painter. In 1960 he went to Tokyo and began his career as a stage designer. He was responsible for the design of such avant-garde drama as the Situation Theatre (Jokyo Gekijo) of Juro Kara (b 1940) and the Upper Gallery (Tenjo Sajiki) of Shuji Terayama (1935-83). He also produced prints and in 1967 exhibited works in the Word and Image exhibition at MOMA, New York. Although he used photographs as the basis of his designs, Yokoo's prints drew upon aspects of traditional Japanese woodcuts that coincided with the style of contemporary Pop art, using in particular flat areas of colour and overtly sexual subject-matter (e.g. X-sex IV, screenprint, 1968; priv. col., see Yokoo, 1990, p. 13). In addition to his activity as a commercial designer, from the late 1960s he became interested in mysticism and psychedelic art, influenced in particular by travels in India in the 1970s. He produced posters with eclectic imagery similar to that of contemporary psychedelic 'underground' magazines. In 1980 he unexpectedly took up painting, prompted by a large-scale travelling exhibition of Picasso's work that he saw in New York. He painted in an expressionistic figurative style works that appeared in stage productions for Yukio Mishima (1925-70) and in productions of operas by Richard Wagner.
Found Here: http://www.answers.com/topic/tadanori-yokoo
| 1936 | Born in Hyogo Prefecture |
| 1956 | Nominated as member of Nissenbi(JAAC)Japan Advertising Artists Club |
| 1960 | Enters Nippon Design Center (NDC) |
| 1964 | Forms Studio "Ilfil" |
| 1965 | Participates in "Persona" exhibition (Matsuya Ginza) |
| Receives Mainichi Industrial Design Award | |
| 1966 | Solo Exhibition (Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo) |
| 1968 | Participates in "Word and Image" exhibition (MoMA, New York) |
| 1969 | Solo Exhibition (Tokyo Gallery) |
| Participates in "A Prospect of Modern Design in Japan" exhibition (The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) | |
| Awarded the Grand Prize for Prints at 6th Paris Youth Biennale | |
Participates in "18 Artists of Contemporary Prints" exhibition (Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art) | |
| 1970 | Participates in Exhibition "Human Documents '70" (Tokyo Gallery) |
| Solo Exhibition (Matsuya Ginza, Kyoto, Kobe, Sapporo,Nagoya etc.) | |
| Art-directs the Fiber Pavilion of Osaka Exposition | |
| 1971 | "Chronicle of Art after World War II" Exhibition (Kanagawa Museum of Modern Art) |
| "The 10th Contemporary Art of Japan Exhibition" (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art) | |
"100 Artists in Art Today" (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art) | |
| 1972 | Solo Exhibition (MoMA, New York) |
| Receives the UNESCO Award of the 4th International Poster Biennale in Warsaw | |
| Wins the Special prize in the 5th International Graphic design Biennale in Brno | |
| Participates in "Print Art" Exhibition (Philadelphia Museum of Art) | |
| 1973 | "Contemporary Art of Japan: A Panorama of Contemporary Japan Art in 20 years"(Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum/Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art) |
| "Graphic Image '73" (Tokyo Central Museum / The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg) | |
| Participates in Tour Exhibition in America "Contemporary Japan Prints" (Museum of Fine Arts Boston/New York Culture Center) | |
| Receives the Judge's Committee Prize of "Contemporary Japan Prints" (London ICA) | |
| Wins the Grand Prize of Tokyo ADC | |
| 1974 | Solo Exhibition (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) |
| "The 11th Japan International Art Exhibition"(Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum/Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art) | |
| "Graphic design Image '74" (Tokyo Central Museum/The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) | |
| Receives the prize of Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art in the 9th International Print Art Biennale in Tokyo | |
| Participates at the exhibition "Japan: Tradition and Contemporary" (Stadtmuseum, D us seldorf) | |
| "Japanese Contemporary Prints" (Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico) | |
| Wins the Gold Prize of the 5th International Poster Biennale in Warsaw | |
| Wins the Silver Prize of the 6th International Graphic Design Biennale in Brno | |
| 1975 | Awarded the 20th Mainichi Design Award |
| "The 11th Contemporary Art in Japan Exhibition"(Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum/Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art) | |
| "Japanese Print Arts in 1975" Exhibition (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts) | |
| "A Panorama of Contemporary Art in Japan" (Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo) | |
| "5 Japanese Graphic designers" (Musee cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne/The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo) | |
| 1976 | Participates in Exhibition of "5 International Graphic Designers" at Venice Biennial |
| 1977 | "Contemporary Japanese Poster Exhibition" (Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo) |
| "The Past 10 years' Japanese Poster" (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam) | |
| 1978 | Wins the Merit Prize of The 7th International Poster Biennale in Warsaw |
| Awarded Kodansha Publishing Cultural Award for Binding | |
| 1979 | Participates in '79 Art Festival in Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum) |
| "Japanese Poster Exhibition" (Musee de la Publicite, Paris) | |
| Wins 2000 Fmk Prize of the 3rd International Poster Biennial in Lahti | |
| 1980 | Solo Exhibition (Okayama Art Museum) |
| Exhibits "Japan Style" (Victoria & Albert Museum, London) | |
| "Japan-Poster" Exhibition (Museum of Modern Art, Vienna) | |
| 1981 | Converted from a graphic designer to a painter |
| "World Contemporary Print in the 25 years"(Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum / Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Art/Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum) | |
| "A turning Point of Contemporary Art in 60's Japan"(The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo/The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) | |
| 1982 | Solo Exhibition (Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg) |
| Solo Exhibition (Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo) | |
| 1983 | Solo Exhibition ( Otani Memorial Art Museum,Nishinomiya city) |
| Solo Exhibition (Musee de la Publicite, Paris) | |
| Participates in "A Tendency of Contemporary Art in Japan part 2: Departure to Diversity"(Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum) | |
| 1984 | Art-directs the stage decoration for Ballet "DIONYSOS", Belgique 20thCentury Ballet, produced by Maurice Bejart and Scara Theatre, MilanoSolo Exhibition (Otis Persons Gallery, Los Angeles) |
| "The 20th Century Posters: Avant-garde" at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis) | |
| "The 2nd Toyama International Contemporary Art Exhibition" (The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama) | |
| "A Panorama of Contemporary Art in Japan ﾑ Graphic Art & Design" (The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama) | |
| 1985 | Invited works at The 13th Paris Biennale |
| Participates in The 18th Sao Paulo International Biennale | |
| Solo Exhibition (Pallazzo Bianco, Genova) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Farcone Theatre, Genova) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Kunstlerhause Bethanien, Berlin) | |
| "The 1st representational painting Biennale" (The Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa) | |
| "Contemporary Self-portrait" (The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) | |
| "Contemporary Art in 40 years" (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum) | |
| "1985: Japanese Prints" (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts) | |
| 1986 | Enters in "The 9th British International Print Biennale" |
| "Tokyo: Form and Spirit" (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis/The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles/IBM Gallery, New York/The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) | |
| "Japanese Avant-Garde 1910-1970" Exhibition (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris) | |
| "A Current of Contemporary Art in Japan: painting Part 1" (The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Roberta English Gallery, San Francisco) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Israel Museum, Jerusalem) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles) | |
| Exhibits "Art and Simplicity" (Setagaya Art Museum / Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Art) | |
| 1987 | Solo Exhibition (The Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo) |
| Solo Exhibition (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh) | |
| "Selection of the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation Collection of Art"(Pennsylvania, and several places in USA) | |
| "Icons in Contemporary Art" (The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) | |
| Receives Hyogo Prefecture Cultural Award | |
| 1988 | Solo Exhibition (Galerie Silvia Menzel, Berlin) |
| "The Modern Posters" (MoMA, New York) | |
| Participates in "Art Kite" tour Japan, the U.S., and Europe in a traveling exhibition (The Miyagi Museum of Art) | |
| "Human Image in Modern Art" (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) | |
| 1989 | Receives Honorary Prize of The 4th ASIA Art Biennale, Bangladesh |
| "The 19th Contemporary Japan-Art" Exhibition (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum/Kyoto City Art Museum etc.) | |
| "ARTIS '89 An international image for human and citizens' rights"(Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris) | |
| "Contemporary Japanese Poster" Exhibition (MoMA, New York) | |
| 1990 | Designs the plans of pavilion and garden for the Central American nation of Belize at Expo '90 |
| The International Garden and Greenery Exposition held in Osaka | |
| Participates in "Excellent Works in Modern Japanese Art: Zidai-wo-tsuranuku-bi" (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art) | |
| "Fantasy and Power: From Japanese Modern and Contemporary Art" (The Miyagi Museum of Art) | |
| 1991 | Solo Exhibition (Sagacho Exhibit Space) |
| Exhibits in "Maniera-no-Kosaten: Contemporary Prints and Image Expression" (Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts) | |
| "Beyond Japan: A Photo Theatre" (Barbican Art Gallery, London) | |
| "Contemporary Japanese Graphic Design" (Design Museum, London) | |
| 1992 | Exhibits in "Japan's Pop art 1960s" (Fukui Fine Arts Museum) |
| "Adam and Eve: 10th Anniversary Exhibition" (The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) | |
| "3 Japanese Poster Artists" (Tel Aviv Museum of Art) | |
| 1993 | Participates in "45th Venice Biennale Trans-Actions" Venice, Italy |
| "International Poster Exhibition" (Tel Aviv Museum of Art) | |
| 1994 | "Avant-garde Art in the Post War Japan"(Yokohama Museum of Art/ Guggenheim Museum SOHO, New York) |
| "Japanese Design" (Philadelphia Museum of Art) | |
| "Art Today 1994" (Sezon Museum of Modern Art) | |
| "The Pop Image Prints and Multiples" (Marlborough Gallery, New York) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans) | |
| 1995 | Receives the Mainichi Fine Art Award |
| Participates in "Sengo Bunka no Kiseki 1945-1995" (Japanese Culture:The Fifty Post-war Years) | |
| (Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art / Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art / Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art) | |
| The 1st Performance Poster International Triennial, Sophia (Bulgaria National Museum of Art) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography) | |
| "Today's Art" (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark) | |
| 1996 | Solo Exhibition (Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo) |
| "1960's Avant-garde Art in the Post War Japan" (Kurashiki City Art Museum) | |
| 1997 | Solo Exhibition (Kirin Plaza, Osaka) |
| Solo Exhibition (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art/ The Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa) | |
| Wins the Gold Prize of New York ADC Award | |
| Publication. "The thing which cannot watch the thing which I see". A Chikuma library | |
| Publication. "Return - Tadanori Yokoo Museum 1966-1997 to me." Hyogo Prefctural museum of art / Kanagawa prefectural Museum of Modern Art | |
| Publication. "Asahi Museum - Tadanori Yokoo." Asahi Shimbun | |
| Publication. "28 world graphic design - Tadanori Yokoo." King the graphic gallery | |
| Publication. "Art of masterpiece response." I am pleased with a present of God. Kobunsha library | |
| Publication. "I and intuition and an alien"(in the sky and the ground, similar figure - changes a title). Bunshun library | |
| Publication. "Tokyo farewell look requiem." Asahi Shimbun | |
| Publication. "A Yokoo's kissho-shofuku poster exhibition." （A fortune）Okanoyama Museum of art Nishiwaki | |
| 1998 | Publication. "Tadanori Yokoo." In the days of a thing of red. （A fortune）Okanoyama Museum of art Nishiwaki |
| Publication. "A Yokoo's kissho-shofuku postcard book." Heibonsha Publishers Ltd. | |
| Publication. "A collection of secret - Tadanori Yokoo talks to live now." Kobunsha library | |
| Publication. "I lived in a flash in a friend". （Art is a love - change of the title）. Kobunsha library | |
| Publication. To "disturbance ! ". （Tadanori Yokoo autobiography - change of the title）. Sentence spring library | |
| 1999 | Exhibits in "Hyojo-han-hyojo: Prints in Japan 1945-1999" (Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts) |
| Solo Exhibition (Communications Museum, Tokyo) | |
| "Ground Zero Japan" (Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito) | |
| 2000 | Solo Exhibition (Museum "Eki" Kyoto) |
| Elected to the Hall of the Hall of Fame, New York ADC | |
| 2001 | Exhibits in "MoMA Highlights" (MoMA, New York) |
| "Century City ﾑ Fine Arts and Culture of Contemporary City" (Tate Modern, London) | |
| Solo Exhibition (The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo) | |
| Purple Ribbon Medal | |
| 2002 | Professor for Postgraduate course of Tama Art University (March 2004) |
| Participates in "Pop! Pop!! Pop!!!" (The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Contemporary Art / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art) | |
| Awarded the ICOGRADA Special Prize of the 20th International Graphic Design Biennale in Brno | |
| 2003 | Solo Exhibition (The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) |
| Awarded the Slovakia Design Center Prize of the 5th 2003 Trnava Poster Exhibition (Slovakia) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Fukuoka Art Museum) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Entwistle Gallery, London) | |
| 2004 | Directs the theatrical Arts and costume of public performance "King and Dragon : author Takeshi Umehara" in France |
| Wins the Silver prize of New York ADC | |
| Exhibition "TAKARAZUKA: the Land of Dreams" (Suntory Museum, Tenpozan / Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery) | |
| "Remaking modernism in Japan 1900-2000"(Museum of Contemporary Art,Tokyo / The University Art Museum-Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum) | |
| Solo Exhibition (SCAI the Bathhouse,Tokyo) | |
| "Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art" (The National Museum of Art,Osaka) | |
| Received the Dark-blue Ribbon Medal from the Japanese Government | |
| Directed the theatrical Art of "Takarazuka Dream Kingdam" by Takarazuka girls' operetta company | |
| Produced the Rapping design for Electric Trains of JR Kakogawa-line | |
| Received the International Jury Prize of The 3rd International Poster Biennial,Ningbo 2004 (China) | |
| 2005 | Solo Exhibition (Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto) |
| Solo Exhibition (Ikeda Museum of 20th Century Art) | |
| Solo Exhibition (Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo) | |
| Wins the Grand Prize of the 15th International Poster Biennial in Lahti | |
ISSEY MIYAKE PARIS COLLECTIONS 1977-1999: Invitations by Tadanori "Yokoo" (The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama) | |
| The Last Exhibition of Parallelism in Art (Espace OHARA) | |
| 2006 | Solo Exhibition （Fondation Cartier pour I' art contemporain ,Paris ） |
| New Acquisition Contemporary Art and The Humor(Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art) | |
| "Dream, Rousseau whom Rousseau watched dream to watch" (Setagaya art museum) | |
| Winning Japanese culture design grand prix | |
| 2007 | "art / nonart / nonart 1950-1970" exhibition（J.Paulgetty Museum, Los Angeles） |
| War and an art exhibition(Kyoto formative arts University gallery Aube) | |
| Art / nonart / nonart： Experiment in the public area in postwar Japan, 1950-1970（J.Paulgetty Museum, Los Angeles) | |
| SEPTEMBER SHOW 2007（A Nishimura art gallery） | |
| Imagery Play（PKM gallery Beijing） | |
| MOT collection pop way 1960s - 2000s（Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art） | |
| Hyogo, person who has rendered distinguished services commendation. Setagaya-ku, special culture service commendation. | |
| 2008 | 8 Solo exhibitions（Scai the bathhouse） |
| Solo exhibition（A Nishimura art gallery） | |
| War and art. Fear and a vision of the beauty（Kyoto formative arts University gallery Aube） | |
| An image of a human being exhibition of the 20th century. | |
| A Tokushima prefectural Museum of Modern Art possession perfect gem exhibition（Gunma prefectural Tatebayashi art museum） | |
| Japanese art： It is collected Hyogo from modern times to the present age（Oscar Niemmyer Museum） | |
| The masked portrait（Marianne Boesky Gallery, N.Y.） | |
| Asia and a European portrait exhibition（The National Museum of Art) | |
| "Wonderland." A Japanese contemporary art exhibition（Opera gallery Hong-Kong） | |
| An image to rebel against. The print media after the nonart and art. 1960 '-70'（Urawa Museum） | |
| I publish novel "BURULAND" carried by literary arts magazine "Bungeishunju Ltd.". | |
| Solo exhibition（Setagaya art museum） | |
| Solo exhibition（Hyogo Tatsumi art building） | |
| Solo exhibition（FRIEDMAN BENDA GALLERY） | |
| Winning Kyoka Izumi literary |
Found Here: http://www.tadanoriyokoo.com/prof/index.html
