Kiyoshi Awazu

Theater Poster, 1972

Poster, Anti War- A, 1971

Illustration/Print 1977

Illustration/Print, 1975

Illustration/Print, 1977

Print, Spring Flow, 1979

Illustration/ print, This is Japan, 1971

Aspen Deisgn Conference, 1994

Aspen Design Conference, 1990

Artist Statement

I wonder where the imagination for drawing comes from? On a sheet of white paper, I casually draw a line. The white paper immediately becomes a screen and space.

Sitting in front of the paper, I wait for a visit from my imagination. My imagination has to be clearer than when I meditate. Otherwise I cannot draw.

I must have been dreaming or something. I started to draw a circle and the circle became and eyeless face. The surroundings of the face are lines of a stratum, meterological contour lines. The face of a girl or an old lady in Munch’s”The Scream” rose before me and flew away. The heads of Picasso, Sharaku, and Eisen came across my mind but they disappeared, too Many images come and go. Faces that I don’t recognize come and go. Whose faces were those? Are those clouds, or the sky reflected in water? A leaf vibrates and disappears.

About the Artist

Legendary Japanese graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu (1929 – 2009) is celebrated for his contributions to poster and urban design.  Awazu was consistently considered among the upper echelon of Japanese graphic designers throughout his career, which began in the years following World War II (tokyoreporter)

In his dedication to experimental expression, Kiyoshi Awazu traversed wide-ranging genres, saying, “In all expressive fields, I resolve to remove not only the boundaries among forms of expression; I will also remove class, category, disparity, and the upward and downward that have appeared in art.” A singular genius with a ceaseless interest in the world around him, Awazu took up art amid his country’s reconstruction from the ruins of war and went on to build a foundation for graphic design in Japan. He subsequently blazed a career cutting freely across the genres of painting, posters, prints, book design, architecture, music, film, performance, and theater. (kanazawa21)

Kiyoshi Awazu Website

Posted by Carmelita Caruana