May 21, 2009 - Sale 2181

Sale 2181 - Lot 160

Price Realized: $ 720
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
YUSAKU KAMEKURA (1915-1997) TOKYO. 1964.
40x21 1/2 inches, 101 1/2x55 cm. Toppan Printing Co., Ltd., Tokyo.
Condition A. Paper.
Kamekura can be credited with introducing the western World to thr Japanese poster through designs published in Graphis magazine. When his series for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics were published, they resonated throughout the graphic design community. He designed four posters for the games. The first one, which became the logo of the games, is a strictly typographic exercise in which the red sun of the Japanese flag is harmoniously balanced atop the gold Olympic rings. For the other posters, he used photography in a modern, dynamic way, depicting sprinters, a swimmer, and an athlete running with the torch at twilight. Kamekura also designed the posters when the Winter Olympics returned to Japan in 1972. Kamekura 16, Olympic Posters pl. 59.