KEIICHI TANAAMI / Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami (Signed)

Keiichi Tanaami
Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami, 1966
Hardcover, Unpaginated
29.5 x 21.5cm
Shinzokei-sha, Tokyo

Condition: Near Fine. Light rubbing and minor wear to the glossy boards, with a small bump and short split at the head of the spine and gentle wear to the corners. Binding remains firm with a clean, bright interior. Signed by Keiichi Tanaami on the colophon page. A beautifully preserved example of this exceptionally scarce first monograph.

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Published by Shinzokei-sha in 1966, Illustration by Keiichi Tanaami is the artist's first monograph and an extraordinarily early document of one of Japan's most influential post-war image makers. Produced before the psychedelic collages and saturated Pop imagery that would come to define his international reputation, the book reveals a remarkably assured visual language built from crisp black line, optical repetition and surreal narrative.

Created at a time when Japanese graphic design was rapidly redefining itself, Tanaami's illustrations move effortlessly between commercial art, Pop culture and psychological fantasy. Faces dissolve into landscapes, bodies become architecture and everyday objects transform into dreamlike symbols, anticipating the hallucinatory visual world that would later make him one of Japan's most celebrated artists.

Issued in the same year that Tanaami established himself as a leading illustrator, Illustration by Keiichi Tanaami remains one of the rarest and most important early publications devoted to his work, marking the beginning of a career that would profoundly influence Japanese Pop art and contemporary graphic culture.