Tadanori Yokoo;Total Graph-ty 1988

Yokoo’s “Total Graph-ty” probably came into being through screenprinting or some other method of graphic reproduction, sometime in the late 1980s. Can you feel the layers? I imagine him in his studio, building up the image bit by bit, each layer a conversation with the last. There are many images here: architecture, a figure of a Madonna and Child. I see all these layers—pink, gray, and brown—with this strange red spot hovering near the top. It is like peering through a barred window. This gesture, these bars, become a lens through which to see the world. It is kind of like how we create paintings: a process of building, layering, and obscuring, all at the same time. Artists are always chatting with each other, across time. I can't help but see the pop art of Warhol and Rauschenberg in here too! It all comes together in a totally unique image. The work is, by definition, a space of uncertainty, open to an infinite number of readings. That is the fun of painting.