Ninth Contemporary Japanese Sculpture exhibition
Kiyoshi Awazu
Japanese, 1929–2009
1982
An offset lithograph exhibition poster by Kiyoshi Awazu that advertises the Ninth Contemporary Japanese Sculpture Exhibition by translating sculptural ideas into a vivid, graphic composition of color and shape.
You’re struck by tightly packed, undulating bands of neon-reds, blues and greens that read like a vibrating topography while a vertical procession of geometric symbols (an eye, pillar, pyramid, sphere, cube, ring) floats down the center next to a bold yellow column of Japanese text.
The poster captures a moment in late-20th-century Japanese design when commercial graphics embraced psychedelic color, optical play, and abstracted forms to bridge advertising and avant‑garde sculpture, making three‑dimensional art legible and exciting in two dimensions.
Medium
Offset lithograph
Dimensions
28 5/8 x 20 1/4" (72.5 x 51.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the designer
Accession
74.1990
Palette
Exhibitions
