May 13, 2013 - Sale 2314

Sale 2314 - Lot 251

Price Realized: $ 10,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
TADANORI YOKOO (1936- ) YUKIO MISHIMA, THE AESTHETICS OF END. 1966.
39 3/4x28 1/2 inches, 101x72 1/2 cm.
Condition A: minor stain in bottom margin; abrasions in image. Silkscreen. Paper. Signed and numbered 7 out of 20 by the artist in green pen. 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, he is announcing 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. In addition to his literary legacy, Mishima is also known for having committed traditional suicide after a failed military coup. Tadanori Yokoo, p. 91, Musée de l'Affiche / Yokoo p.6, MOMA 697.1966.