Kikuji Kawada

NIKKO - A Parable

May 10 - Jun 25, 2011
Photo Gallery International

Kikuji Kawada

NIKKO - A Parable

May 10 - Jun 25, 2011
Photo Gallery International

  • ©Kikuji Kawada

Photo Gallery International presents an exhibition of Kikuji Kawada’s new work, “Nikko – A Parable.”

 

Kawada had interests in baroque in the late 16th century also architecture and gardens in Europe known as grotesque, and put these photographs into a book “Sacré-Atavism”. He, in turn, pointed his lens at architecture and spirit of Nikko Toshogu Shrine asking if there were baroque of Japan in that place.

 

The European castle that reflected the spirit of Ludwig II: that was possibly the domain of images passed through idea. Contrasting Nikko Toshogu Shrine with the castle of Ludwig II, Kawada photographed a parable came out in Nikko.

 

“Nikko – A Parable” is a series consists of not-yet-exhibited images photographed in three years (1982 through 1984), and images recently photographed as well.

 

Around 20 ink-jet color prints are shown together with vintage gelatin silver prints at the exhibition.

Kikuji Kawada

Born in Ibaraki, Japan in 1933. He joined Shinchosha in 1955. He became a freelance photographer and co-founded the VIVO collective in 1959 together with Eikoh Hosoe, Ikko Narahara, Shomei Tomatsu, Akira Sato and Akira Tanno.

In 1965 he released The Map, a groundbreaking photo book loaded with postwar political metaphor, and he continues to challenge our intellect with similarly fresh and clairvoyant images to this day. Kawada describes his work as “an expression of a specific scene in time and my relationship to it, framed accordingly, and the style born from the exchange.” These days Kawada can be found posting images and photographic musings to his Instagram account.

 

 

Exhibitions at PGI

Shadow in the Shadow, 2019
Los Caprichos – Instagraphy – 2017, 2018
Last Things, 2016
2011 – phenomena, 2012
NIKKO – A Parable, 2011
World’s End 2008-2010, 2010
Remembrance of a Remote Past – A Memoir 1951-1966, 2008
Invisible City, 2006
The Map 1960 – 1965, 2004
Eureka, 2001
CAR MANIAC, 1998
ZENO – The Last Cosmology, 1996
Los Caprichos 1970-1980, 1986
Nude Museum, 1984