Exhibition information

The 204th Exhibition 20th Century Rimpa: Ikko Tanaka

August 18, 2015 - October 29, 2015

Design: Kenjiro Sano, MR_DESIGN INC.
Design: Kenjiro Sano, MR_DESIGN INC.
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“There was Sotatsu Tawaraya in the seventeenth century, Korin Ogata in the eighteenth century, Hoitsu Sakai in the nineteenth century, and Ikko Tanaka in the twentieth century. Tanaka is not Rimpa-like. He is the very person that embodies Rimpa.” This is how the art historian Yuji Yamashita comments on Tanaka.
Ikko Tanaka was born in Nara and spent four years of his impressionable youth in Kyoto (now Kyoto City University of Arts). He was amply inspired by traditional Japanese aesthetics, particularly the world of Rimpa, which had continuously been pursuing beauty in daily life. Identifying fine elements of design within its artistic beauty, Tanaka inherited the essence, assimilated it as part of himself, and demonstrated his rare talent as soon as he made his debut.
This exhibition is held in commemoration of the quadricentennial of Rimpa (400 years since Koetsu Honami established Koetsu-mura, a community in Takagamine in the northern part of Kyoto, in 1615). 123 works by Ikko Tanaka from the DNP Graphic Design Archives Collection have been carefully selected from the points of view of subjects, techniques, compositinos, colors and attitudes towards creativity identifiable in Rimpa works to trace the path that led to the birth of Ikko Tanaka as a twentieth century representative of Rimpa.
In addition, we will exhibit the motion graphics by Rhizomatiks analyzing 1600 plus posters by Ikko Tanaka.

Venue

kyoto ddd gallery
10 Uzumasa Kamikeibu-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto 616-8533
TEL:075-871-1480
Hours: 11:00 - 19:00 (until 18:00 on Saturdays and Sundays)
Closed on Holidays. Admission free

Adviser: Kazumasa Nagai, Yasuhiko Kida, Yuji Yamashita

Supported by: The Kyoto Shimbun

Guest Contributor: Rhizomatiks

Exhibition Design: Kenjiro Sano

Talk-1

Date: Tuesday, 18 August, 2015 14:00-16:00
Speakers: Kazumasa Nagai, Yasuhiko Kida, Yuji Yamashita, Kenjiro Sano
Venue: First floor, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Ensho-ji-cho, Okazaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8344 / access
Cosponsored by: The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Admission free, but reservations required (capacity: 150 persons)
* For reservations, click here starts from July 13.

【Notice】
Please note that one of the speaker ,Yasuhiko Kida not be able to attend the talk event,
as he had passed away on August 13.

Opening Party

Date: Tuesday, 18 August, 2015 17:30-19:00
Venue: kyoto ddd gallery

Talk-2

Date: Saturday, 19 September, 2015 17:30-19:00
Speaker: Yuji Yamashita
Venue: First floor, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Ensho-ji-cho, Okazaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8344 / access
Cosponsored by: The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Admission free, but reservations required (capacity: 150 persons)
* For reservations, click here starts from August 18

Ikko Tanaka(1930-2002)

Born in the city of Nara in 1930. Graduated from Kyoto City College of Arts (now Kyoto City University of Arts) in 1950. After tenures at Kanegafuchi Spinning and the Sankei Shimbun, he moved in Tokyo in 1957 and joined Light Publicity. A founding member of the Nippon Design Center in 1960, he established the Ikko Tanaka Design Studio in 1963. He remained a leading figure in the world of Japanese graphic design until his untimely death in 2002