May 13, 2021 - Sale 2568

Sale 2568 - Lot 376

Price Realized: $ 5,460
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000

TADANORI YOKOO (1936- )

YUKIO MISHIMA / [THE AESTHETICS OF END]. 1966.


40x28 3/4 inches, 101 1/2x73 cm.
Condition A- / A: water stains and minor rippling in bottom margin; minor creases in image; hand-signed by the artist in pen. Silkscreen. Paper. Framed.

The attitude of the Japanese toward marketing ingeniousness allowed Yokoo a kind of artistic freedom he would have been hard pressed to find in Western economies, where marketing often acts to censor creativity. Here, Yokoo announces the publication of a serialized essay by Yukio Mishima (the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka, one of the major Japanese avant-garde authors of the 20th century). The image combines such classical Japanese graphic elements as the rising sun and a great wave, with a Western-style locomotive and pin-up girl. Yokoo additionally designed book covers and other posters for the author as well. Aside from his literary legacy, Mishima is also known for having committed traditional suicide after a failed military coup. Yokoo 356, Yokoo / Veyrier p. 6, MoMA 697.1966.