Japanese Culture of the Postwar Years 1945-1995 1996

Tadanori Yokoo made this, 'Japanese Culture of the Postwar Years 1945-1995' sometime after 1995, though I'm not sure when or with what! It's a wild mix of images and symbols. What grabs me first is its texture. It's flat, hard-edged, definitely a print, but within that, there's a ton of visual activity happening all over. The color palette is also intense – reds, pinks, yellows, and blues crash into each other, creating a sense of excitement and visual overload. There's an area on the lower left where we see a torso next to a face - there are teardrops coming from the eyes. This makes me think about the pain and tears and how that relates to Japanese culture after the war. It feels like a remix of pop art, psychedelia, and traditional Japanese imagery. Yokoo is interested in art as a conversation. I'm reminded of James Rosenquist and his billboard-sized collages of American pop culture. Just as Rosenquist captured the frenetic energy of America in the 60s, Yokoo seems to be wrestling with Japan's identity after the war. It's art that doesn't give you easy answers, and I love that.