More

We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We'd like to set other cookies to remember your settings, measure website use and inform our marketing. We also use content from other sites in our pages, and those sites may also set cookies. More information can be found in our cookies policy.

1-63－85

These acrylic paintings were primarily created for the covers of publications, including the weekly magazine Shukan Playboy (published by Shueisha since 1966) and the folk singer Takashi Nishioka’s book Man’in no ki (The Crowded Tree) (Rippu Shobo, 1973), as well as for other magazine features. The 1973 painting Gold Fish (cat. 1-75) marks the first appearance of goldfish, a motif he would frequently revisit. For Tanaami, goldfish are strongly connected to childhood memories of World War II. During the war he stayed at his grandfather’s house in Shirokane, where his grandfather maintained a large aquarium containing ranchu, demekin, and other prized varieties of goldfish. The sight of the fish shimmering in the water as incendiary bombs fell, observed from an air-raid shelter, was powerfully imprinted on his mind and indelibly seared into his memory for life.