SHOMEI TOMATSU

GALERIE PRISKA PASQUER Albertusstr. 9-11, 50667 Cologne Tel. +49 221 9526313 [email protected] www.priskapasquer.de

8 November 2012 – 19 January 2013 extended and ending on 26 Februrary 2013 Tue – Fri 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat 12 - 4 p.m.

Galerie Priska Pasquer is pleased to present the second exhibition in Germany to be devoted exclusively to the works of Japanese artist Shomei Tomatsu. The exhibition features a selection of black-and-white photographs and, for the first time in a gallery exhibition outside Japan, colour works by the artist from the late 1960s and the 1970s. Shomei Tomatsu is regarded as the most important figure in Japanese post-war photography and his work has had a key influence on subsequent artists such as Daido Moriyama, Yutaka Takanashi and . Shomei Tomatsu’s imagery is noted for its varied and complex nature. His style ranges from works leaning towards classical street photography and symbolically charged objects to abstract (urban) views and dynamic, expressive compositions. Depending on the subject matter, the artist expands his visual grammar, creating pictures that walk a tightrope between the concrete and the abstract and between fascination and repulsion. At the same time, these images remain timeless photographs. Shomei Tomatsu’s works take a unique approach to exploring the changes in society since the 1950s. His photography shows the after-effects of the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki, the influence of American popular culture, the impact of the Japanese economic boom of the 1960s and the declining archaic culture in Okinawa in the 1970s. Shomei Tomatsu’s artistic works focus on Japan’s journey towards urban modernity since the 1950s. Indeed, the works in his ‘Protest’ and ‘Eros’ series from the late 1950s have come to symbolise a lifestyle that reflects the search for novelty and appears to be charged with eroticism and aggression. Another theme that has been explored by Tomatsu for more than a decade in the ‘Chewing Gum and Chocolate’ series is the influence of the US occupying forces and of American culture on Japanese society. In the first half of the 1960s, Tomatsu began to experiment with colour photography. In the late 1960s, he then began to use colour images, in addition to black-and-white photography, as a medium for his key themes. As with his black-and-white works, he manages to create dynamic, expressive compositions with his colour photographs. He transforms the waving flags of a demonstration in his ‘Protest’ series into an abstract composition of moving colours. Even in his more narrative photographs, Tomatsu manages to add symbolic messages. For instance, a photograph of an amusement park, which was taken through a window splotched with red paint, has been described as a modernist, almost painterly profanation of the Japanese flag (John W. Dower).

Brief biography

Born in Aichi, in 1930. 1954-56 Photographer at the Iawanami Shashin Bunko publishing house together with Nagano Shigeichi. Participated in the “Eyes of Ten” exhibitions, 1957-59. In 1959, founded photographic agency VIVO together with Kikuji Kawada, Akira Sato, Akira Tanno, Ikko Narahara and Eikoh Hosoe. In the same year, he began to take photographs at the US military bases all over Japan and also the effects of a typhoon that destroyed his mother’s house. Commissioned to work on a book about the dropping of the atom bomb on Nagasaki, together with Domon Ken. 1972-1976 lived in Okinawa. 1974 Founded the “Workshop Photography School”, , together with Nobuyoshi Araki, Masahisa Fukase, Eikoh Hosoe, Daido Moriyama and Noriaki Yokosuka. 1995 Awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal by the Japanese government. Died in Naha, Okinawa on 14 December 2012.’

Selected exhibitions

1974 “New Japanese Photography”, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1979 “Japan: A Self-Portrait.” International Center of Photography, New York 1984 “Shomei Tomatsu: Japan 1952-1981”, Forum Stadtpark, Graz 1985 “Black Sun: The Eyes of Four”, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford 1992 “Sakura + Plastics”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1996 “Traces: 50 years of Tomatsu’s works”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2000 “How You Look at It: Photographs of the Twentieth Century”, Sprengel Museum Hanover 2004 “Interface. Shomei Tomatsu”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto 2004 “Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation”, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco 2006 “Aichi Mandala: Early Works of Tomatsu Shomei”, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya 2007 “Tokyo Mandala”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2010 “Shomei Tomatsu”, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne 2011 “Tomatsu Shomei: Photographs”, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya 2011 “Tomatsu Shomei. Okinawa Photographs - Love Letter to the Sun”, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Naha City 2012 “Everything was Moving. Photography from the 60s and 70s”. Barbican Art Gallery, London 2012 “Shomei Tomatsu” Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne

Selected publications

• Shomei Tomatsu, , et al: Hiroshima-Nagasaki Document. Tokyo 1961 • 11:02 Nagasaki. Tokyo 1966 • Nippon. Tokyo 1967 • Salaam Aleikum. Tokyo 1968 • Okinawa, Okinawa, Okinawa. Tokyo 1969 • Oh! . Tokyo 1969 • Après-Guerre. Tokyo 1971 • I Am a King. Tokyo 1972 • The Pencil of the Sun. Tokyo 1972 • Kingdom of Mud. Tokyo 1978 • Ruinous Garden. Tokyo 1987 • Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. 1990 • Tomatsu Shomei 1951-60. Tokyo 2000 • Shomei Tomatsu. Skin of the Nation. San Francisco 2004 • Tomatsu Shomei: Photographs. Nagoya, 2011 • Tomatsu Shomei. Okinawa Photographs - Love Letter to the Sun. Naha City, 2011