Hanshan and Shide, Two Enlightened Zen Poets for Tadanori Yokoo

Tadanori Yokoo is one of the most famous Japanese artists in the world. Electrified by Pop Art and American graphic design, Yokoo has always enjoyed transgressing visual taboos, mixing traditional Japanese pictorial methods with Western representational motifs. His first important work was a poster created in 1965 for the Persona exhibition at the Matsuya department store. In a style that anticipated the psychedelic San Francisco posters of the late 1960s, Yokoo depicted the imaginary scene of his own funeral. The work's references to Japan include Mount Fuji, a bullet train and the rising sun, emblem of the Japanese Empire which will become an essential element in Yokoo's image repertoire. In the 1970s, inspired by a trip to India, Yokoo incorporated Buddhist iconography into the album covers of the Beatles, Carlos Santana and Cat Stevens. Yokoo later became known for his science fiction posters and designs for gangster film director Ken Takakura. For this exhibition Tadanori Yokoo has worked on a series of works based on the figures of Hanshan and Shide, a traditional subject in East Asian painting, a couple of Zen monks who spend time in nature, away from social structures and institutions. Hanshan and Shide were Zen poet-monks who presumably lived during China's Tang dynasty (618-907). They were celebrated in both China and Japan for their erratic behavior and apparent insanity, considered by some to be a sign of spiritual enlightenment. This series traverses various realms, weaving a dazzling story that truly transcends space and time. The most important series of Yokoo's career, it poses countless questions to its viewers, like a mirror that shows a different reflection every time.