Kikuji Kawada - KYOBAI, Japanese Art and Culture London Wednesday, April 2, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Acquired directly from the artist

  • Exhibited


    The Map, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, March 29 – May 25, 2003, there another set exhibited.

  • Literature


    Museum of Modern Art, Houston, The History of Japanese Photography, p. 246; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Theatrum Mundi, 2003, pp. 18-23 plus various illustrations.

  • Catalogue Essay

    Kikuji Kawada came of age during the era of postwar reconstruction in
    Japan and it was during this period when he would source the inspiration
    and meaning behind his photographic subject for decades: the aftermath
    of war in Japan and most notably, the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and
    Nagasaki. His seminal series from the early sixties, The Map, is the
    pinnacle of this project. First exhibited at the Fuji Photo Salon in 1961, this
    series of harrowing, raw, melancholic images all focus on the emotional
    and physical debris left after the war. Most poignant of all is the image of
    the Japanese Flag, once an icon able to motivate and inspire a nation, and
    now, a shabby trampled piece of cloth. This project continued to bring
    Kawada acclaim throughout the following decade with John Swarkowski,
    in 1974 choosing to exhibit the entire project at MOMA for his exhibition
    New Japanese Photography.
    It was for this MOMA exhibition that Kawada made five sets of prints,
    the last one of which Phillips de Pury & Company is proud to offer for
    sale for the first time. The other sets are held in the Collection of Museum
    of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Art; Tokyo
    Museum of Photography and a Private Collection, Tokyo. Prints from the
    Map Series are also held in the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kawasaki City
    Museum; Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art and Kiyosato Museum
    of Photographic Arts. Kawada was one of the founding members of the
    Vivo Agency, along with Shomei Tomatsu and Eikoh Hosoe, among others.
    Kawada lives and works in Tokyo.
     

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, TOKYO

134

“The Map” Complete Series

1960-1965

Eleven gelatin silver prints, printed 1973.

No.s 1,3,7,9,10,11. 18.4 x 24.1 cm. (7 2/8 x 9 1/2 in). No.s 2,4,5,8. 24.1 x 18.4 cm. (9 1/2 x 7 2/8 in). No.s 6. 16.8 x 27.9 cm. (6 5/8 x 11 in)

Artists blind stamp credit in margin. Each signed, titled and numbered AP 1/5 in pencil on the verso.

Estimate
£100,000 - 150,000 

KYOBAI, Japanese Art and Culture

3 Apr 2008, 6pm
London