ART CITIES:Moscow-Keiichi Tanaami
Keiichi Tanaami is one of the most influential Pop artists of postwar Japan. He studied graphic design, worked with the Japanese neo-Dadaist Ushio Shinohara, and collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg and Michel Tapié during their visits in Japan. In 1969 he visited Andy Warhol in his Factory in New York and was very inspired by Warhol’s strategy of shifting commercial working practice into art production. Tanaami’s works have had significant influence on artists such as Takashi Murakami, Tabaimo, KAWS, and many others.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gary Tatintsian Gallery Archve
Keiichi Tanaami’s solo exhibition “Land of Mirrors” is on presentation at Gary Tatintsian Gallery in Moscow. Keiichi Tanaami was born in Tokyo in 1936. He was 9 years old when Tokyo was bombed during the Great Tokyo Air Raid of World War II in 1945. Images seared into the back of his mind at this time would become major motifs in his work: war, American bombers, firebombs dropped from planes, eroticism, American consumerism, and, in a later period, philosophical reflections on the meaning of life and death. As the artist says “Most of the characters in my works are based on my own life experience. A myriad of trials, events and meetings that have affected me … they all make up the key elements of my works”. At the beginning of his career, Tanaami devoted particular attention to American experimental films “Good-by Elvis and USA” (1971), took part in happenings staged by Yoko Ono, and shot videos with Nam June Paik. At the same time, he illustrated fashion magazines and created collages and paintings. During the ‘60s, he busied himself as a successful illustrator and graphic designer while also actively participating in the Neo-Dada organization with Ushio Shinohara, Robert Rauschenberg and Michel Tapié. In 1967, Tanaami took his first trip to New York City. There he came face to face with the works of Andy Warhol, Tanaami was struck by the new possibilities of art within the world of design. At the height of psychedelic culture and pop art, Tanaami’s kitschy, colorful illustrations and design work received high acclaim in both Japan and abroad. He created album cover art for the legendary bands The Monkees and Jefferson Airplane and, in 1968, his work “NO MORE WAR” won top prize in an antiwar poster contest organized by Avant-Garde Magazine. His series of erotic paintings featuring Hollywood actresses done in the early 70s became an important body of work and Tanaami became known as an artist with a witty eye for American culture. In 1975, Tanaami became the first art director of the Japanese edition of Playboy Magazine, and went to New York once again to visit Playboy’s head office. The editor there took him to Andy Warhol’s Factory. Eroticism in Tanami’s works reflects the national culture and color, and the images of young women, with their almost architectural accuracy, are reflected in paintings, films and sculptures.
Info: Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Serebryanicheskaya naberezhnaya 19, Art House, Moscow, Duration: 28/9-18/11/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 12:00-20:00, Sat 12:00-18:00, www.tatintsian.com
