The publication NO MORE WAR presents a group of recently discovered sculptural works created by the Japanese pop-art pioneer Keiichi Tanaami (b. 1936, Tokio) in the 1980s. The wood-cut sculptures recall children’s toys and represent an unexpected break from the artist’s usual style. They form an obscure world of objects reminiscent of the frozen figures from his early films that connect the aesthetic of American advertisements and fragmented memories of World War II. Today these unusual sculptures call to mind video game creatures, fantastical architectural models and post-modern design, but they also retain a connection to traditional Japanese handicrafts.

Born in 1936 as the son of a textile wholesaler, Tanaami was nine years old when he experienced the bombing of Tokyo towards the end of World War II. He studied at the Musahino Art University, visited Andy Warhol in New York in 1969, worked with both Robert Rauschenberg and art critic Michel Tapié during their travels to Japan, and designed record covers for Jefferson Airplane and The Monkees. In 1975 Tanaami became the first art director of the Japanese edition of Playboy Magazine. He has been teaching at the Kyoto University of Art and Design since 1991.

NO MORE WAR is, after Trix + Robert Haussmann (N° 127), the second publication in the series STUDIOLO / Edition Patrick Frey.