Japanese Culture of the Postwar Years 1945-1995 1996

Here's a wild and wonderful screenprint, *Japanese Culture of the Postwar Years 1945-1995*, made by Tadanori Yokoo. It’s like Yokoo dove headfirst into the swirling, vibrant chaos of postwar Japan and pulled out… this. I’m thinking, what a moment to be an artist, trying to make sense of total destruction, of rapid modernization. The artist throws it all in there: bodies, flags, tears, symbols, not resolving anything, but putting it all out there for us to see. The colours are lurid. And the images are layered, collaged, and montaged. There’s an insistence to it all. You get the sense that Yokoo, like a lot of artists, is in a conversation with the world, but also with other artists. He's asking: How do we make images that can even begin to address what we have seen and experienced? It's almost like he’s saying, "I don't have answers, but here are some questions." And honestly, that's the best any of us can do.