Japanese Posters – today. From the DNP Archives of Graphic Design, Japan
Duration of exhibition: 23 February – 23 April 2006
Opening: 22. February, 19:00
Organizer: Die Neue Sammlung – State Museum of Applied Arts and Design | Design in the Pinakothek der Moderne
in cooperation with
DNP Archives of Graphic Design, Tokyo, and
Umeleckoprumyslové museum v praze (Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague)
Location: Pinakothek der Moderne, Barer Strasse 40, 80333 Muenchen
Opening hours: Thuesday – Sunday 10 – 17, Thursday + Friday 10 – 20
Info-Tel +49 (0)89 / 23 805-360, +49 (0)89 / 272725-0
The poster at left is by Nagi Noda (b. 1973) for Vivre summer campaign, using her fun fitness video "Ex-Fat Girl", Photo: Shoji Uchida.
Gentle seduction, audacious provocation – the world of 'mangas' (Japanese comics), computer-generated effects, graphic und calligraphic expressivity, subtle photo montages, symbolic-like intensity, Pop Art collages … they are all part of the stylistic range that characterises contemporary Japanese poster design.
The outstanding role played by Japan's culture of aesthetics in the birth of modern European art has continued through to this day in the unique development of Japanese graphic design and, in particular, through the genre of posters with their unmistakable aesthetic singularity, extraordinarily sophisticated printing techniques and immense power of expression.
Taking a selection of some 120 works from the DNP Archives of Graphic Design, Tokyo, the exhibition concentrates on the last 15 years – a period of rapid change in an age of globalised communication and the striding advance of the digital media. By focussing on the medium of poster, the exhibits illuminate in a multi-facetted way features of continuity as well as the changes that have occurred. Juxtaposed to the works of some ten internationally renowned designers who have helped to shape graphic design since the Sixties are ten or more designers of the younger generation – thus the masters vis-à-vis representatives of the up-and-coming scene.
Among those artists featured are such legendary protagonists of Japanese graphic design as Kazumasa Nagai, Ikko Tanaka, Mitsuo Katsui or Tadanori Yokoo, but also the "young wild ones" of the computer and comic age – including Nagi Noda, Keiko Hirano, Taku Satoh, Kashiwa Sato and Kenjiro Sano.
The exhibition "Japanese Posters – today" was planned as a project of international cooperation between Japan and Europe. In charge of the project as partners of the lender – DNP Archives of Graphic Design in Tokyo – are Die Neue Sammlung (the State Museum of Applied Arts and Design) in Munich and the Umeleckoprumyslové museum v Praze (UPM – Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague). Following its première in Munich, the exhibition will go on a tour through Europe linking different European museums in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany.
With the particular support of Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd., Tokyo
Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue in German and English language. Approx. 200 pages with some 130 colour pictures. Design: Stepan Malovec, Prague.
Further information and pictures:
Dr. Corinna Roesner
Die Neue Sammlung, Head Office: Tuerkenstrasse 15, D-80333 Muenchen, Germany
Tel +49 (0)89 / 27 27 25-0
Fax +49 (0)89 / 27 27 25-561
E-mail presse@die-neue-sammlung.de