Poster for a Happening 1968

This silkscreen poster was created by Tadanori Yokoo in Japan. It's advertising a theatrical happening. Yokoo was a leading graphic designer in the postwar period. His work drew on a wide variety of sources. Here, we see the combination of Japanese imagery such as the legs of a Kabuki actor in silhouette, with visual motifs from Western pop culture. Japan experienced rapid modernization after World War II. This affected social and cultural institutions. Avant-garde artists questioned traditional values and embraced new forms of expression. Yokoo’s poster reflects this spirit of experimentation and cultural hybridity. It challenges conventional ideas about art and design. Its radical juxtaposition of visual elements makes a statement about Japan’s changing identity in the globalized world. To understand Yokoo's art fully, we can look to archives and period publications. These would offer a better understanding of the cultural debates and artistic movements that shaped his work. As historians, we can find new meaning in the art, when we consider the social and institutional contexts from which it emerged.