X+Y= LOVE: A Tribute to Japanese Popular Music, 1995

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Painter, sculptor, and experimental musician Shinro Ohtake devised his own form of archiving in 1977, when he began gluing objects from his life and popular culture into scrapbooks. His love of nostalgia and music came together in X+Y=LOVE, an ode to ten Japanese pop songs he grew up with. Some present lovesickness to the extreme. The song “I Want You,” for example, talks of slicing open a loved one’s breast with a scalpel. Ohtake’s etchings can be equally raw, as in the eyeball and internal organs accompanying this song. The artist’s brittle, sometimes fragmented etchings contrast with the figures on the cover, who look like a cheery couple out of a 1950s magazine ad.

Details
Title
X+Y= LOVE: A Tribute to Japanese Popular Music
Artist Life
born 1955
Role
Artist
Dimension
15-1/8 × 11-2/8 in.
Accession Number
2018.123.30
Provenance
Sold at The London Original Print Fair on 2/07/10 by Stephen Stuart-Smith, Enitharmon Press, London, #1287, per slip enclosed with book. William P. Kosmas, London, England (d. 2017); Estate of William P. Kosmas, Minneapolis; given to MIA, 2018.
Curator Approved

This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

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