OKAMOTO, Taro.
Taro Okamoto.
Tokyo: Bijutsu Publishing Co. , 1968.
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Signed Limited Edition of Taro Okamoto; Inscribed by the Artist to Yousuf Karsh
Signed limited edition of this deluxe Japanese monograph on the avant-garde artist Taro Okamoto. Quarto, written in Japanese, original pictorial boards, housed in the original publisher’s slipcase, profusely illustrated with reproductions of Okamoto’s paintings and sculpture. One of 500 numbered copies, this is number 167. Association copy, inscribed by the artist in French on the half-title page to the celebrated portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh and his wife Estrellita, “A Monsieur et Madame Estrellita Yousuf Karsh, en amical souvenir de Taro Okamoto, Tokio 13.5.69.” Boldly signed again beneath in both Roman letters and Japanese characters. The recipient, Yousuf Karsh, is recognized as one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century. Arriving in Canada in 1924 as an Armenian refugee, Karsh eventually settled in Ottawa. Over six decades, he mastered the art of portraiture and created a unique chronicle of his time through images of celebrated legends. Some of his most notable subjects include Winston Churchill, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Ernest Hemingway, among others. A celebrity in his own right, he was an elegant and charming public figure, captivating audiences with compelling stories told in images and words. Karsh sought to capture, as he put it, the “elusive moment of truth,” revealing the essential nature of his subjects as reflected in their eyes, hands, and attitudes. From the collection of Yousuf Karsh with his estate label to the front pastedown. Held by the Estate of Yousuf & Estrellita Karsh; after Yousuf’s death in 2002 passing to Estrellita Karsh; after Estrellita’s death in March 2025 passing to Katherine Getchell. In near fine condition. Housed in the original publisher’s illustrated board slipcase. Edited by Hideo Kaido.
Okamoto Taro (1968) is a landmark art monograph produced at one of the most consequential moments in the career of Taro Okamoto (1911-1996), the Japanese avant-garde artist, writer, and art theorist whose work constitutes one of the most original and far-reaching contributions to twentieth-century Japanese visual culture. Born in Kawasaki to the cartoonist Ippei Okamoto and the writer Kanoko Okamoto, Taro Okamoto spent more than a decade in Paris from 1929, studying aesthetics at the Sorbonne under Victor Basch, studying ethnography under Marcel Mauss alongside many of the leading Surrealist and abstract artists of the era, and forming close friendships with Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Man Ray, and Robert Capa, before returning to Japan in 1940 and establishing himself as the most important conduit of the Parisian avant-garde to the Japanese art world. The 1968 publication of this volume coincided with Okamoto's completion of his monumental 5.5 by 30-meter mural Myth of Tomorrow, commissioned for the Hotel de Mexico and later installed permanently at Shibuya Station in Tokyo, and preceded by only two years his creation of the Tower of the Sun for Expo '70 in Osaka, the 70-meter humanoid concrete sculpture that became the most celebrated public artwork in modern Japanese history and transformed its creator into a figure of national cultural iconicity.
Taro Okamoto.
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