Tadanori Yokoo

Biography

One of the few surviving members of the first generation of Pop international artists, Tadanori Yokoo [b, 1936, Japan] has left an indelible mark on the aesthetic and cultural exchanges between Japan, Europe, and the U.S. since the 1960s.  Appropriating and intermixing Western and traditional symbols, Yokoo’s subversive poster designs were instrumental in the development and dissemination of a new iconography for post-war Japan. 

 

Moving to Tokyo in 1960 to pursue his passion for painting and a career in graphic design, Yokoo quickly became a rising figure within the Japanese avant-garde. Working across disciplines and continents, Yokoo counted many renowned creative minds –– within Japan, such as the poet Yukio Mishima, and in his visits to New York, figures such as the artist Jasper Johns –– among his many points of connection.

 

By 1972, Yokoo had achieved widespread international recognition and was exhibiting widely at a number of prestigious institutions including a solo exhibition, Graphics of Tadanori Yokoo, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. During this time, his commercial work included designing album covers for Miles Davis and Santana, among others, while maintaining a private practice of painting.

 

Yokoo’s work has been the subject of countless solo exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections of key institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Fondation Cartier, Paris; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.  Since albertz benda opened in 2015, the gallery has presented two exhibitions of Yokoo’s paintings spanning from the 1980s to the present.

Works
Exhibitions
Art Fairs
Press
Bibliography

TADANORI YOKOO 

Born in 1936 in Nishiwaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan 

Currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan 

 

MUSEUM & PUBLIC COLLECTIONS 

Art Kite Museum, Detmold, DE 

Bradford Museums Galleries & Heritage, West Yorkshire, UK 

Brandenburg Art Collections of Cottbus, Cottbus, DE 

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 

Chicago Athenaeum, Chicago, IL  

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  

Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, JPN 

Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, DK 

Dante Museum, Rome, IT 

DNP Archives of Graphic Design, Tokyo, JPN 

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, FR 

Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles, CA 

Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, JPN 

Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI  

Hakone-machi Social Education Center, Hakone, JPN 

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, JPN 

Himeji City Museum of Art, Hyogo, JPN 

Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, JPN 

Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Hokkaido, JPN 

Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art, Hokkaido, JPN 

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, JPN 

Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JPN 

International Hokusai Research Center, Milan, IT 

Israel Museum, Jerusalem, IL 

Iwaki City Art Museum, Iwaki, JPN 

Japan Foundation, Toronto, CAN 

J. Paul Getty Museum Villa, Malibu, CA  

Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, JPN 

Keio University Research Center for the Arts & Arts Administration, Tokyo, JPN 

Kunstgewerbe Museum, Zurich, CH 

Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, JPN 

Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, JPN 

Kyoto Saga University of Arts, Kyoto, JPN 

Lahiti Art Museum, Lahti, FI 

Les Silos, Maison du livre et de l'affiche, Chaumont, FR 

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 

Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Tokyo, JPN 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 

Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, JPN 

Museo Dantesco, Rome, IT 

Museum of Art, Kochi, JPN 

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, JPN 

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, DE 

Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, AT 

Museum of Design, Zurich, CH 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 

Museum of Formative Art, Zurich, CH 

Museum of Modern Art, Genoa, IT 

Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, JPN 

Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, JPN 

Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, JPN 

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY 

National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, CAN 

National Museum, Poznaniu, PL 

National Museum for Applied Art, Munich, DE 

National Museum & Gallery of Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK 

National Museum of Art, Osaka, JPN 

National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, JPN 

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, JPN 

Ningbo Museum of Art, Ningbo, CN 

Notojima Glass Art Museum, Ishikawa, JPN 

Ogaki Poster Museum, Ogaki, JPN 

Ohara Museum of Art, Tokyo, JPN 

Oita Prefectural Art Hall, Oita, JPN 

Okawa Museum of Art, Kiryu, JPN 

Okanoyama Museum of Art, Nishiwaki, JPN 

Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, IT 

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DE 

Patrick and Beatrice Haggarty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI 

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, AUS 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA 

Santa Barbara Museum of Modern Art, Santa Barbara, CA 

Santa Rosa Junior College Art Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA 

Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, JPN 

Setagaya Literary Museum, Tokyo, JPN 

Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, JPN 

Shimane Art Museum, Matsue, JPN 

Shimonoseki City Art Museum, Yamaguchi, JPN 

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL 

Suntory Museum, Osaka, JPN 

Tadanori Yokoo Museum, Kobe, JPN 

Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, JPN 

Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, JPN 

Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi, JPN 

Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Tokushima, JPN 

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, JPN 

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK 

Walker Art Center, Minnesota, USA 

Wilanòw Poster Museum, Warsaw, PL 

World Children's Art Museum, Okazaki, JPN 

Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, JPN 

Yonago City Museum of Art, Yonago, JPN 

 

SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2024              albertz benda, New York, NY

 

2021                21_21 Design Sight Gallery 3, Tokyo, JPN 

                          Shibuya PARCO, Tokyo, JPN 

                          Yukiko Mizutani, Tokyo, JPN 

                          Yokoo Tadanorwari Museum of Contemporary Art, Kobe, JPN 

                          Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, JPN

                          Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, JPN

                          Oita Prefectural Art Museum, Oita, JPN 

 

2020               Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Kobe, JPN 

                          Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, JPN  

 

2019                Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, JPN 

                          Nishiwaki Okanoyama Museum of Art, Hyogo, JPN 

                          SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, JPN 

 

2018                albertz benda, New York, NY 

                          Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Kobe, JPN 

                          Ginza graphic gallery, Tokyo, JPN  

 

2017                 Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Kobe, JPN 

                          Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Tokyo, JPN 

                          Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, JPN 

                          Towada Art Center, Aomori, JPN  

 

2016                 Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Kobe, JPN 

                           Poster Museum, Warsaw, PL 

                           The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa, JPN 

                           Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Hyogo, JPN 

                           State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, RUS 

 

2015                  albertz benda, New York, NY  

                            Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Hyogo, JPN 

                            Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, JPN 

                            ginza graphic gallery, Tokyo, JPN 

 

2014                  Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Hyogo, JPN 

                            Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima, JPN 

 

2013                 Iwate Museum of Art, Iwate, JPN 

                           Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, Hyogo, JPN 

                           Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima City, JPN 

                           Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, JPN 

                           Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, JPN