Ay-O – Rainbow Hokusai (1970)

Exhibition poster with the work, Rainbow Hokusai (1970), by the Japanese artist, Takao Lijima, with the stage name, Ay-O, from the exhibition, Japan on Louisiana, in 1974. Ay-O is known as the "Rainbow Man" for his use of color-saturated, rainbow-striped motifs and the poster's motif here is a section of Rainbow Hokusai.

Of all foreign cultures, the Japanese is probably the one that has had the most profound impact on the sensibilities of the Western world for more than a hundred years, says Louisiana Revy in a foreword to the exhibition.

The Japanese woodcuts influenced European painting with flat painting and bold cuts of the subject and the ink art of Zen art influenced the American and European art of the 50s and 60s.

The modern architects of the West are indebted to their Japanese counterparts, whose sense of materials, intimacy and human proportions fascinated and was incorporated. For example, the Japanese modular system, which is also expressed by several of Louisiana's own buildings—a way of thinking that the architects of the Bauhaus generation, in particular, unfolded completely.

And the influence and inspiration went both ways. Both European painters and architects sent strong influences back to Japanese painting and architecture. In the same way, experiences were exchanged between Japanese and European handicrafts, from the French art deco of the 20s to the Finnish art industry of the 50s.


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