"TADANORI YOKOO – Nishiwaki: Sight of the Memory" (横尾忠則 西脇・記憶の光景展), Japanese Contemporary Art Poster, Original Offset 2000, B2 Size (c.51 × 73 cm)
This is an original Japanese offset poster printed in 2000 for Tadanori Yokoo – Nishiwaki: Sight of the Memory (横尾忠則 西脇・記憶の光景展), an exhibition held at the Okanoyama Museum of Art, Nishiwaki in Hyōgo Prefecture, the artist’s hometown. The show presented new works that explored Yokoo’s memories of Nishiwaki and his long relationship with the city.
The design itself is now in the permanent collection of The National Museum of Art, Osaka, which catalogues it as an offset‑printed poster on paper measuring approximately 73 × 51.7 cm.
Tadanori Yokoo – Nishiwaki: Sight of the Memory (2000)
Yokoo’s poster stages a haunting, surreal procession. Across the top, a row of former school staff or townspeople stands in front of a classic wooden school building, rendered in crisp photographic colour. At the centre, one solitary figure is picked out in flat red, becoming a ghostly stand‑in for memory—or for Yokoo himself, who was born in Nishiwaki in 1936.
From this group stretches a deep, inky black avenue that cuts toward the viewer like a river of night. Swarming along this path are hundreds of small golden fish, each marked with white letters, as though memories, names or fragments of language have taken on living, flickering form. The perspective pulls the eye from the anonymous crowd in the distance down to the individual fish at your feet, echoing the exhibition’s theme: how personal recollection radiates outward into collective history.
The composition marries Yokoo’s characteristic photo‑collage with an almost cinematic sense of depth. The ordinary schoolyard is transformed into a metaphysical stage where past and present, people and symbols, all converge. The lower right margin bears the credit “TADANORI YOKOO 2000,” confirming the date and authorship.
Japan Poster Shop has acquired a substantial and unique group of original Tadanori Yokoo posters from one of Japan’s most dedicated Yokoo collectors – a person who spent decades tracking down scarce exhibition and commercial pieces, including this important Nishiwaki poster.
One of Japan’s most famous graphic designers, Yokoo is celebrated for fusing traditional Japanese motifs with Pop art, Surrealism and Western graphic design. From the mid‑1960s his psychedelic posters and album covers for theatre troupes and musicians brought him international attention, leading to his inclusion in MoMA’s landmark 1968 exhibition Word and Image and a solo MoMA show of his graphics in 1972.
Today his work is held by major institutions worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and museums across Japan.
Rarity and condition
Posters for Nishiwaki: Sight of the Memory were printed for a single 2000 exhibition at the Okanoyama Museum of Art, Nishiwaki and were not widely distributed. Many surviving examples were pinned or pasted up in public spaces and show heavy handling. The fact that this design is preserved in the National Museum of Art, Osaka’s collection underlines its importance within Yokoo’s late‑20th/early‑21st‑century poster work.
This particular poster is in excellent, very close to near‑mint condition. Colours are rich and saturated, the black field remains deep with no noticeable fading, and the paper is clean and crisp with only the faintest traces of handling consistent with careful storage. Please study the photos closely, as they show the exact poster for sale.
It is about 25 years old.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
