Rizzoli returns with a poignant new monograph highlighting the late and important postwar Japanese artist, Keiichi Tanaami who passed away in August this year. Recognized for his interdisciplinary work across paper, magazine covers and large-scale paintings, Tanaaami’s genre-defying practice spawns characters from a fantastical world intermixed with raw, diaristic scenes and elements that were largely inspired by the artists’ experiences of living through the United States’ atomic attack on Japan during World War II.
The hardcover book, edited by Kaleidoscope and Capsule’s Alessio Ascari, thematically details his prolific career into five sections: Eros, Underground, Pop, Tradition and Landscape. The comprehensive tome also delves into Tanaami’s more nuanced projects in eroticism, surrealism, psychedelia as well as American comic art. Encompassing 256 pages, fans who are curious about the artist’s humanism will also discover personal explorations detailing the artist’s thoughts on politics, consumerism and popular culture alongside contributions by renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and American culture critic, Carlo McCormick.
“Whereas Japanese and Western fine-art traditions became important to Tanaami throughout his development as an artist, it is to pop culture and subculture that he feels most intimately indebted. Growing up, his adoration for Osamu Tezuka’s seminal manga series Astro Boy was matched only by his obsession with American comics such as Superman and Wonder Woman,” said Ascari in the book. “He often reminisces about his childhood days spent at Meguro Palace—a decrepit film house that specialized in Holly- wood B-movie productions—and how happy he felt enveloped in the cozy darkness of the theater. Over and over, he would watch popular entertainment flicks, Westerns and action movies. With a notebook on his lap, he would draw Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, Popeye, and other cartoons off the screen.”
The book is available to purchase on Rizzoli’s online book store and select stockists for $75 USD.
