In conversation, Tadanori Yokoo jumps nimbly between the past and the present. One moment he¡¯s watching the sky glow red as bombs rain down on Kobe during World War II. The next he¡¯s riding in a taxi with Yukio Mishima. And then he¡¯s back in the present, here at his studio in Tokyo¡¯s Setagaya Ward, discussing his latest painting.
It has always been that way for this 75-year-old who, in the 1960s, became Japan¡¯s most famous graphic designer before abruptly deciding, in 1981, to become a painter. Not only his conversation but everything he has produced to date ¡ª his graphic-art posters, his fine-art paintings ¡ª draws on his memories.
Yokoo was born in 1936 in Nishiwaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and was adopted by relatives ¡ª a doting elderly couple who had run a kimono fabric-making company.
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