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This is the fourth artwork in the Revolver collection of print works produced using a gravure printing press.
(pre-sale on this site by lottery. They will also be sold in galleries and at other locations.)
A man's face is converted into a house by a surgeon who was once a carpenter. The interior of his head, which once contained a skull, brain, and eyeballs, has been turned into a space with a living space. His eyes and ears have become windows. His mouth is now a door. The man depicted in “Kuma-san, the Plastic Surgeon” (published in Weekly Shonen Magazine in 1974) in Fujio Akatsuka's Tensai Bakabon is placed prominently in the center. The front and sides of the face/house are decorated with floral patterns by Tanaami, adding kitsch to the artwork.
In Akatsuka's manga, the face/house catches fire at the end, and as if in anticipation of this, an explosion occurs in the background, with sound effect "Kaboom" placed dynamically at the fore.
The man with the sunglasses whose arms and legs have blown off is somehow enjoying himself, while his searchlight emitting eye floats across the scene. Bakabon no Papa and Bakabon ride a paper airplane. Bakabon is about to be swept off the plane as it makes a sharp turn.
Another boy spins like a top, as if he were about to do a spin on ice. The boy has three faces, two hands, four legs, and a camera. The angle of the snot running from his noses shifts as he faces each direction. It is a depiction that has been made into a symbol, and not something that could ever be captured with a camera.
For an exhibition at Parco Museum Tokyo, Tanaami created a face/house large enough for people to enter and titled it "Luck-Leading Equipment." It may be burnt to ashes, but it brings good luck. It is both a person and a piece of equipment. Tanaami's humor shines through in this work.
Tanaami was born in Tokyo in 1936, graduated from Musashino Art University, and awarded a special prize by the Japan Advertising Artists Club in 1958. Having immersed in American counterculture and pop art since the 1960s, he was an independent artist who had been actively crossing boundaries to pursue his creative endeavors, which range from animation to silk screens, manga-like illustrations, collages, experimental films, paintings, three-dimensional works, and more, without restricting himself to any medium or genre. Inspired by his encounter with Andy Warhol, he had continued to experimentally challenge the major themes tackled by contemporary art today, such as art and design, art and products, everyday beauty, and the public and art, while using the design methodology of editing to the present day. Through more than half a century of creative activities, he has gained a high reputation worldwide as one of the pioneers of pop art, which symbolizes postwar Japan. Tanaami's recent major exhibitions include Keiichi Tanaami: Adventures in Memory (2024, The National Art Center Tokyo, Tokyo), TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! That’ s All Right!!(2023, PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, Tokyo)the solo exhibitions Manhattan Universe (2022, Venus Over Manhattan, New York), A Mirror of the World (2022, Nanzuka, Tokyo), Tokyo Pop Underground (2019, Jeffrey Deitch, New York), and Keiichi Tanaami (2019, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland); as well as the group exhibitions Tokyo: Art & Photography (2021, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), The World Goes Pop (2015, Tate Modern, London), International Pop (2015, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA), and many others. His work is in the permanent collections of MoMA (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Art Institute of Chicago, M+ (Hong Kong), National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), and Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art (Berlin).
It all happened after the Second World War. During Japan's postwar economic boom, gravure printing was used to produce countless images. The vivid colors captivated the people. The term "gravure idol" is derived from gravure printing.The times have since changed. Gravure printing presses were massive, making them unsuitable for printing small numbers of copies. At the end of 2021, Shueisha's gravure printing era came to a close.Although they have become obsolete in commercial printing, printing techniques such as lithography have found their way into the fine arts. However, given the scale and mechanics of gravure printing, once operations are halted, it is extremely difficult to get them up and running again.Machines capable of printing hundreds of thousands of copies were used for edition prints of just over 100 copies each. The resulting prints were mounted on aluminum composite panels for smoothness and preservation and housed in colorful custom-made boxes.
The original box includes a blockchain-linked sales certificate
All works are registered to Startrail PORT, NFT management service. Works include a blockchain-linked sales certificate with an affixed NFC tag sticker (letterpress printed by Kazui Press). You can view the information recorded on the NFT by scanning the NFC tag sticker with a smartphone. We will send you your product in an original Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage box.
Work Size 1082mm x 754mm
Paper used White Kingdom
Printing Method Gravure Print
Package Contents
Main product
Blockchain-linked sales certificate (letterpress printed by Kazui Press, linked with NFC tag sticker)
Instruction manual
Booklet
Storage case
