Beijing

Shinjiro Okamoto OKASHIN – Shinjiro Okamoto Beyond POP

2021/7/24–9/10

Tokyo Gallery + BTAP is proud to announce our 2nd exhibition in commemoration of Japanese artist Shinjiro Okamoto, to be held from July 24 through September 10, 2021. The 1st installment – held in 2020 – treated visitors to a chronological overview of this Japanese Pop Art pioneer, who earned his spurs in Japan’s post-war contemporary art scene and ended up becoming a major inspiration to subsequent generations. With a prolific body of work spanning sixty-odd years and a consistently idiosyncratic style, Shinjiro Okamoto far exceeded the scope of ‘Pop Art’ and managed to create a league of his own.

Among others, this exhibition will showcase a limited edition lithograph of Betty Boop’s Country, a series completed in 1974; 2 (sets of) works taken from the 1980 series of ‘light and shadows converging’; the 1986 piece Big Moving Picture ; and an exceptional piece entitled Laughing Chūshingura, completed as part of Okamoto’s 1990 series of ‘laughing paintings’. Conceived at different stages of Shinjiro Okamoto’s career and thus widely divergent in style, these works bypass the formal confines imposed by the term ‘Pop Art’, thus allowing visitors a fresher and more rounded look at the artist. They also demonstrate how Okamoto was able to develop his ‘Okashin universe’ around a comprehensive artistic system, relying solely on his own abilities and beliefs to do so.

The artist referred to himself as ‘Okashin’, an amalgamation of the first parts of his surname and given name. He took pleasure in using it as an umbrella term for all things related to his person: Mr. Okashin, the Okashin collection, the Okashin aesthetic, Okashin art, ... Having been born in Tokyo in 1933 and grown up in the district of Kanda-Ogawamachi as a ‘Tokyo youth’, a true ‘Edo native’, the young Okamoto experienced the Shōwa era, a period during which the economy and popular culture flourished, and which is regarded as the pinnacle of glory for the Japanese people. These experiences not only gave shape to Okamoto’s later expressive style, but also helped form his expressive lexicon. As he himself put it: ‘The Okashin aesthetic seems simple at first glance, but it is actually complex, combining Edo-style shades of meaning with a general bullheadedness. This results in images stripped bare, bearing no trace of shade. Simplicity, abstraction, flat lines, and the likes. I hope to produce an entertaining environment, but one that does not pander to the viewer. Mine is an anti-humanist, anti-bourgeois everyday sort of painting, an exotic, pure, Japanese painting.’

Historically speaking, Okamoto’s art is a reflection of Japan’s subcultural abundance prior to WWII, as well as the artist’s critique of social reform and economic recovery in post-war Japan. Okamoto took forms and techniques originating in Japan’s pre-war pop culture and integrated them into his own expressive language, signaling his ardent passion and sentiment for these cultural elements. Under the guise of bright, cacophonous yet serene cartoonish shapes, the artist smuggles in the subject of his critique, namely the hollowness of modern society.

This exhibition will be on show from July 24 through September 10, 2021. We look forward to your attendance.

WORKS

Title
Light and Shadow Picture
Year
1985
Medium
Liquitex
Size
173.2 x 194 cm
Title
Self-Portrait in the Guise of Ishimatsu
Year
1994
Medium
Liquitex
Size
116.7 x 91 cm
Title
1000 Ants
Year
1997
Medium
Offset
Size
26 x 21 cm

Shinjiro Okamoto

Shinjiro Okamoto (1933-2020) taught himself watercolor painting after graduating from the Tokyo Metropolitan Nihonbashi High School. In the 1960s, he established a style of painting composed of simple lines and bright acrylic paint colors. In 1962 and 1964, he received honorable mentions at the Shell Art Awards and, in 1964, the grand prize at the inaugural Nagaoka Contemporary Art Museum Awards. Since then, he has participated in numerous exhibitions in and out of Japan, including the Tokyo Biennale and the Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan. In recent years, he has received growing international acclaim as an artist presenting an aspect of post-war Japan, as exemplified by his inclusion in the International Pop, an exhibition that situated Pop Art within an international context (which toured the Walker Art Center, Dallas Museum of Art, and Philadephia Museum of Art). His first exhibition at Tokyo Gallery, The World of Insects: Or the Scenery of Swarm, was held in 1966. In addition, he also worked as an Art Director at Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. Until 1981, where he excelled for his work in the field of design.
During his long career, Okamoto developed many series in different styles. His subjects range from pre-war popular culture to art, religion, and history. The works are based on meticulous sketches, and dispassionate brush strokes create lively forms across the image. One of the most striking aspects of Okashin’s [an abbreviation of OKAmoto SHINjiro] world is the way in which a single image is recreated in different variations of color and size using techniques such as lithographs, silk-screen, three-dimensional painting, and sculptural objects. These proliferating images transform the exhibition space to an overwhelming spectacle. The upbeat and festive pictorial spaces do indeed entertain the viewers, but at the same time do not pander to them, presenting a calmness akin to an eye of a storm.

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