2010 Annual Soshitsu Sen XV Distinguished Lecture on Japanese Culture “Why I Posed as Yukio Mishima”
April 14th, 2010
6:00 PM
2010 Annual Soshitsu Sen XV Distinguished Lecture on Japanese Culture “Why I Posed as Yukio Mishima”
Lecture by Yasumasa Morimura
Venue: Miller Theatre, Columbia University
Prior to Mr. Morimura’s lecture, the Donald Keene Prize for the Promotion of Japanese Culture will be awarded to Impressions, the journal of the Japanese Art Society of America (JASA). Julia Meech, Editor of Impressions, and Joan D. Baekeland, President of JASA, will accept the award.
Lecture information:
Widely known as the artist who transforms himself into the Mona Lisa and movie actresses, Yasumasa Morimura has won international acclaim for his unique and avant-garde expression of ‘beauty’. Since 1985, his focus has been his ‘self-portrait series’, consisting of unique reconstructions of art masterpieces in which the subject’s face is substituted with that of Morimura himself. Through careful study and analysis of the themes, artists, and historical background of these works, Morimura searches out their raisons d’etre and transforms them according to his own interpretations. His ability to deconstruct, subvert, and simultaneously create an homage is what enables his work continually to defy categorization.
Lecturer information:
Yasumasa Morimura was born in Osaka and graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts in 1978. Since 1985, he has primarily shown his work in international solo exhibitions./p>
