TarÅ Okamoto
Taro Okamoto (Japanese冈本 太郎, taro Okamoto, born February 26, 1911 in Takatsu, Tachibana -gun (now Takutsu -ku, Kawasaki ), † January 7, 1996 ) was a Japanese artist. Okamoto created numerous two - and three-dimensional works that are under the influence of abstract art and surrealism, but also take on the art of the Jōmon period and the artistic tradition of Okinawa reference. He was also active as a writer and stepped into the late years frequently in the media. His most famous work is the " Tower of the Sun" (太陽 の 塔, Taiyo no tō ), which he created for the 1970 World Exhibition in Osaka.
Life
Taro Okamoto was born the eldest son of comic artist and cartoonist Ippei Okamoto Kanoko Okamoto and writer. In 1929 he began to study at the Department of Oil Painting of Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakko (now Tōkyō Daigaku Geijutsu ), but traveled in December of the same year with his parents to Europe and settled in January 1930 settled in Paris. 1931 proclaimed Okamoto along with Kurt Seligmann (1900 - 1962) the neo-concretism as art direction that would be classified between the Abstraction- Création antifigurativen and the Surrealists, however, could not prevail as an independent movement. Under the influence of Picasso in 1932 he turned to abstract art. Since 1933, Okamoto was a member of the artist group Abstraction- Création. In 1938 he studied ethnology at Marcel Mauss, participated introduced at the international surrealist exhibition in Paris and was designed by Patrick forest mountain in Georges Bataille's secret society Acéphale with the painting ' Injured Arm " (傷 ましき 腕, itamashiki building). After the German invasion of France in 1940 Okamoto returned to Japan. In 1941 he was awarded for two of his works created in Europe the Nika Award (二 科 赏, nika - shō ). The following year, Okamoto was drafted and used as a private at the Chinese front. On his return in 1946 he realized that all his works were like an air raid victim. The literary critic Kiyoteru Hanada and others he in 1948 founded the avant-garde group Yoru no Kai (夜 の 会, dt " soiree "). 1954 works of Okamoto at the 27th Venice Biennale were shown. In 1956 he designed the ceramic reliefs on the walls of 1957 completed, now again demolished the administration building of the Tokyo prefecture ( Tōkyō-to Chosha ) in Marunouchi. In addition to the "Tower of the Sun" Okamoto created the " Tower of the mother " and the "Tower of Youth" for the so-called zone symbol Expo '70 in Osaka. In a television commercial for videotapes he made 1981 his motto "Art is explosion" (芸術は爆発だ!, Geijutsu wa Bakuhatsu da! ) Popular. In 1991, he donated important works of the city of Kawasaki, which he was an honorary citizen in 1993. He died on 1 July 1996 from acute respiratory failure.