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Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society Current Exhibit: June 18 to August 28, 2004 |
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The
Graphic Appetite: SHIN MATSUNAGA - SIMPLICITY OF GRAPHIC FORM
Art by
Shin Matsunaga, Japan's leading contemporary graphic designer, reflects
these philosophical and formal principles. From the basic energies
of visual form, from a continuing and fresh exploration of the relationships
of plane in space, of volume, elements of typography, and of visual
sounds, Matsunaga has constructed a language Born in
Tokyo in 1940, Shin Matsunaga expressed an interest in visual forms
in his early childhood. After graduating from the Faculty of Design
at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1964,
Matsunaga began his artistic career in the advertising department
at Shiseido Co., Ltd. There, his posters for the company's Bronze
Summer suntan oil campaigns won him Tokyo Art Directors Club (ADC)
prizes in three successive years (1969-1971). Subsequently, he established
his own firm in Tokyo, Shin Matsunaga
A specific design of his posters subverts the notion that communication consists of a passive transfer of information from one party to another. Rather his posters seize the viewer's attention, engaging him or her in a process of negotiation with the image. Through a complex association of metaphors and historical references, the viewer not only unravels but also enhances and enriches the meaning veiled by the sophisticate interplay of word and picture.
Says Douglas
Whitton, a Professor of Design at Sheridan College in Oakville,
Ontario in his essay for Matsunaga's exhibition at the Japan Foundation
in Toronto: "
. The Jacek
Malec List of Images:
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The
Japanese, by their geographic disposition and aesthetic temperament,
have historically demonstrated an extraordinary talent for learning
and adapting from outside sources without sacrificing and compromising
their centuries-old system of traditions and beliefs. This is very
much evidenced in Japan's contemporary visual arts, architecture
and, particularly, in design. For the Japanese, design 
has
served - through development and application of symbolic vocabulary
- as a quiet and personal expression of the elegant as well as the
ordinary. In addition, the Japanese have had a specific ability
to reduce complicated representational ideas to simple forms and
patterns that are visually tantalizing. 
of
graphic art which is expressed through symbols rather than descriptive
statements. 
Design,
in 1971 and, while continuing his free-lance design services for
Shiseido, Matsunaga expanded his offerings to include corporate
identity programs (Mazda, Hankyu), editorial design (Nonon and More
magazines), books, calendars, and package designs, winning prizes
in every category: Tokyo ADC prizes for calendar (1973) and editorial
design (1978), top honours for package design from the Japan Package
Design Association (1984, 1985, 1987), and the Mainichi industrial
design prize for his graphics and package designs (1986). In 1982
Matsunaga reached nearly legendary status in Japan's design milieu
for his design of Visual Constitution of Japan, a book design with
such visually appealing cover and graphics that it became a national
best seller. Since the late 1970's Matsunaga has exhibited his works
abroad, receiving a Gold 
Medal
for his poster designs at the Unites States-Japan Graphic Design
Exhibition in New York (1978, 1981), a Gold Medal at the International
Poster Biennale in Warsaw, Poland (1988), and the American Clio
Award for his package designs (1989). His graphic design has become
the subject of numerous solo exhibitions in Poland, the United States,
Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Belgium and Slovenia. A major survey exhibition,
Graphic Cosmos - The World of Shin Matsunaga toured Japan from 1996-1999.
In 1997, the Shin Matsunaga Design World exhibition was held at
Saison Museum of Art in Tokyo. In 2001, the Spring Has Come: Shin
Matsunaga, Play With Details exhibition was held at the Ginza Gallery
in Tokyo and the DDD Gallery in Osaka. 
The
Graphic Appetite: Shin Matsunaga Poster Exhibition is the first
major presentation of Matsunaga's graphic design in western Canada.
This exhibition not only showcases Matsunaga's impressive corpus
of work, but also highlights his diverse range of symbolic idioms
and discusses visual vocabulary, which has been so expertly articulated
through the universal themes of his poster designs. His compelling,
impeccably executed , but often puzzling imagery with a wide range
of formal and symbolic vocabulary and application of new techniques,
entices us to contemplate his works for longer that we had planned
as we attempt to unravel the symbolism that obscures the statement
he wishes to make or message 
he
strives to deliver. 
Matsunaga's
poster designs refer to an abundant palette of colours enhanced
by a rich visual and conceptual dictionary, and testify to imaginative
and sophisticated compositions of unusual terseness of measures.
The irresistible suggestiveness of his poster designs, its intellectual
character and that way Matsunaga treats fundamental functions of
a poster (information, illustration, attraction) speak volumes about
the creative potential of their author.
diversity
of Matsunaga's creative pursuits form a continuum between two opposites:
raw, personal hand-drawn images and cool, universal geometric computer-generated
forms. In spite of the diversity of style, form and content that
one experiences in the show, the viewer is paradoxically left with
an impression of wholeness (
.). Shin Matsunaga never succumbs to
a compromise solution or a repetition of previous successful solutions.
He never takes the easy way out. The unity of the work in this show
is a result of the thought process behind it
".