Asian Performing Arts Institute Kiyoshi Awazu 1981 Signed \"Noh\" Poster VTG UCLA For Sale

This is one of a series of posters designed in 1981 by twelve top Japanese graphic design artists under the curation of the art and design critic Masaru Katsumi. They commemorated a series of lectures, masterclasses and performances relating to five types of traditional Japanese theatre, dance and music. Performers calling themselves the Classical Performing Arts Friendship Mission of Japan spent five weeks performing on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, and across the country as part of the UCLA Asian Performing Arts Institute.Noh is the major form of Japanese classical musical drama that developed in the 14th century and is still performed today.
Kiyoshi Awazu’s distinctive, often psychedelic, posters remain influential as examples of the Japanese avant-garde scene which grew up in Tokyo, as the country began to re-establish itself after the end of the Second World War in the 1950’s and 60’s. Later, in 1970 he would paint the famous and distinctive ‘supergraphic’ exterior to the Nibankan building, a collaboration with architect Minoru Takeyama whom he had met whilst teaching at the Musashino Art University.Awazu, began designing posters and advertisements for films released by the Japanese studio Nikkatsu, forging a substantial reputation and being recognised with a number of awards throughout the 1950s.Throughout his long career, he regularly sought out projects that expanded beyond Graphic Design alone; from film production to exhibition design, and in particular Urban planning and his involvement with the Architectural movement of Metabolism in the 1960s.In 1990 he was awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honour by the Japanese Government, and today examples of his work are held in the Museum of Modern Art, Stedelijk Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art Toyama.
The poster is hand-signed by the designer.