Japan Artist Keiichi Tanaami Featured in Retrospective at Tokyo Museum; 500 Pop-Art Works on Display

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Colorful paintings and sculptures are on display in the venue.

By Mutsumi Morita / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

10:29 JST, October 8, 2024

The images are dense, and the colors extremely vivid. This is the world of Keiichi Tanaami — a pioneer of pop art in Japan.

Following his passing at the age of 88 on Aug. 9, on display at “Keiichi Tanaami: Adventures in Memory,” a large-scale retrospective exhibition, around 500 works look back on over 60 years of his artistic output.

Active as a top graphic designer and artist since the 1960s, Tanaami was known for his collage techniques and distinctly vibrant colors. He sublimated his life experiences, like war and battling illness, into his art, blending them with visuals from various sources such as film, anime and classic and modern paintings across time periods and cultures.

He had also been involved in editing the Japanese edition of the monthly magazine Playboy.

“Collaging is similar to editing a magazine. I search for and collect materials to create a single world. It suits my nature,” Tanaami said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun last year.

The Yomiuri Shimbun
A sculpture made up of motifs often used by Keiichi Tanaami, such as references to American culture, a skull and contorted pine trees

The wide variety of motifs found across his paintings, sculptures, videos and installations on display at the exhibition include fighter jets, UFOs, American comic book characters, mannequins featured in Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings and roosters in Ito Jakuchu’s works.

Among his motifs, the contorted pine tree is one of the most striking. It is said to stem from hallucinations Tanaami experienced due to the side effects of taking strong medication when he was hospitalized for tuberculosis in 1981.

Skulls also appear in many of his artworks, potentially inspired by his experiences of war and battles with illness, reflecting his belief as an artist that “feeling death so close leads one to living.”

The Yomiuri Shimbun
An exhibition room with works featuring characters by mangaka Fujio Akatsuka

There are also paintings from a series recreating a piece by Pablo Picasso, as well as collaborations with the work of mangaka Fujio Akatsuka.

The sheer volume and weight of Tanaami’s works hits visitors hard. After a visitor has been immersed in them, the world may look a little different upon leaving the museum.

The exhibition runs through Nov. 11 in the National Art Center, Tokyo in the Roppongi district.