Yasumasa Morimura - Fine Art Photography

Art history series

Excerpt from an article by Monty DiPietro:

“Art is basically entertainment,” says Yasumasa Morimura, “Even Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were entertainers. In that way, I am an entertainer and want to make art that is fun.”

Osaka-based Morimura, 47, burst onto the international art scene about 10 years ago with his “Art History” series, computer-aided reconstructions of great Western paintings that featured the artist¹s big-nosed face replacing the faces of the works¹ original subjects. The high-tech Japanese kitsch was embraced by a Western world passing through a period of growing interest in sushi, economic miracles, and things Japanese in general, and Morimura became somewhat of a superstar both at home and abroad. His more recent work has featured the artist made-up as Hollywood starlets, and has won the Osaka-based artist solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Yokohama Museum of Art, and ensured his inclusion in major group shows at scores of important galleries and museums around the world. The MoT exhibition is the most complete collection of the artist¹s original “Art History” series ever presented.