Yamaguchi, Harumi; Yokoo, Tadanori

Harumi Gals [1978 Parco View 2 Publication WITH ORIGINAL YELLOW/RED OBI BAND]

Paruko shuppan-kyoku, 1978. First Edition, First Printing. Paperback. Parco, 1978. Oversized magazine with pictorial covers with yellow/red obi/band. First Edition, First Printing. Oversize softcover art book, dimensions : 16.5 x 11-3/4 inches. 98 pages with full-page color illustrations throughout offering a visual smorgasboard featuring 100 eye-catching, provocative works by Japanese female artist Harumi Yamaguchi, together with creative director Kazuko Koike and art director Eiko Ishioka. Text in Japanese. Supervised by Tadanori Yokoo. Includes a photo parody by Hajime Sawatari and texts by Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, Makoto Wada, Ikko Tanaka, Shinichi Kusamori, Ryuichi Yamashiro, Kouhei Tsuka, and Sakumi Hagiwara. CONDITION: Near Fine; a solid, tight, clean copy showing light overall rubbing to covers, edges and corners, light wear to edges with some shallow creabbing and wear with creases to rear corner. Overall, a collectible copy with the rare original yellow obi/band.

Oversize softcover art book with color illustrations throughout. A collection of works by Japanese female artist Harumi Yamaguchi, together with creative director Kazuko Koike and art director Eiko Ishioka. Text in Japanese.Biography: Harumi Yamaguchi (Japan, b. 1936). Born in Matsue in the Shimane prefecture, Yamaguchi graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in oil painting. She began her career as a freelance illustrator, spearheading the advertising for the renowned retail establishment PARCO. From its outset, PARCO was established to combine a commercial retail establishment with a cultural facility, combining platforms such as museum, theatre, and publishing in addition to retail. Yamaguchi’s role as engineer of the project’s mise-en-scène places her in the center of art and design in Japan. As one of the original gyaru — commonly known also as “Shibuya Girls” rising from out ūman ribu or the feminist movements of the 1970s and generally applied to professionally-empowered but trend-conscious young women— Yamaguchi’s position at PARCO gave her license to portray an emerging cosmopolitan woman, liberated from the vestiges of traditional femininity and empowered through consumerism to define her own individuality. “Harumi’s gals” are often active and in motion — be it throwing a ball or swimming in a crystal blue pool — and returning the gaze of the viewer. As Chizuko Ueno noted in her essay published in connection to “Women of the 70s PARCO Poster Exhibition 1969-1986”, an exhibition that took place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, “while appearing to adhere to the scenario of male-tailored eroticism, Yamaguchi deconstructs male desire through her exaggerative depictions. As a consequence, the female body is idealised to a realm unreachable by male hands”. Yamaguchi’s works are in the collections of: CCGA Graphic Art Center; Fukushima Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, Japan; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Fine. Item #11337

Price: $450.00