Greeting
It is with great pleasure that the National Art Center, Tokyo presents Keiichi Tanaami: Adventures in Memory, the first large-scale retrospective of works by the internationally renowned artist Keiichi Tanaami (b. 1936).
Developing a fondness for painting as a child, Tanaami later enrolled in a design course at the Musashino School of Art (now Musashino Art University). While attending the school he began working as a designer, and after becoming the first art director at the monthly magazine Playboy (Japanese edition), he emerged as a leading figure in Japan’s underground art scene. In 1966 he published A Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami, a collection of works that heralded the start of his career as an artist based on the unique concept that printed materials are all original works rather than reproductions. Since that time, Tanaami has consistently developed a genre- and media-crossing practice that encompasses paintings, silkscreened prints, collages, animation, experimental films, three-dimensional pieces, large-scale installations, and myriad collaborations. Tanaami’s pioneering activities garnered him renewed attention in the 2000s, leading to exhibits of his works and screenings of his films at art and cultural facilities around the world. Today Keiichi Tanaami serves as a role model for a younger generation of multifaceted artists. This exhibition traces his six-decade-plus creative trajectory through a tremendous offering of works— including new pieces never shown before—organized around the theme of “memory.”
At the heart of Tanaami’s diverse artistic world are his childhood memories of war and his traumatic experience of a serious illness that left him teetering between life and death. Based on the idea that human beings subconsciously alter their memories over the course of their lives, Tanaami makes art that deals with the subject of memory as amplified within his brain. As the title Adventures in Memory suggests, this exhibition enables viewers to immerse themselves in a world of art akin to a collage of remembrances in which fact intermingles with fiction. These works sprang forth from the insatiable curiosity of Tanaami, who has remained on the cutting edge of every era of his career.
In closing, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Keiichi Tanaami for his unstinting cooperation in organizing every aspect of this exhibition. We would also like to convey our deepest thanks to all of the museums and collectors who kindly agreed to loan us valuable works, and to all of the staff and many others who provided us with their assistance and support on a variety of levels to help us realize this undertaking.
The Organizers
