Bonjour Picasso, from the portfolio Homage to Picasso
Artist/Maker
Shūsaku Arakawa (Arakawa Shūsaku 荒川修作)
(Japanese, 1936–2010)
Date1973
MediumColor screenprint
DimensionsImage (irregular): 21 1/8 × 29 15/16 in. (53.7 × 76 cm)
Sheet: 22 7/16 × 29 15/16 in. (57 × 76 cm)
Sheet: 22 7/16 × 29 15/16 in. (57 × 76 cm)
Credit LineGift of Aaron E. Feldman
Edition14/30
Object number2018.39.3
Status
Not on viewFrom a 1973 portfolio of sixty-nine prints by many of the foremost artists of the mid 20th century, Arakawa’s Bonjour Picasso seems at first to be a cheerful note to the artist in brightly colored handwriting, filled with bland niceties. “Dear Picasso, Hello. How are you? How is the family? How is the weather?” However, some of the lines are smudged and unreadable, with hints of a darker message seen in the line “nightmare of history.” The text concludes with a jaunty, “Kiss me quick and write me soon.” The background image—an upside-down detail of Gustave Courbet’s 1855 work titled The Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Life as an Artist—may allude to Picasso’s very public role as an artist.
Arakawa had an artistic career as what he termed an “eternal outsider.” He immigrated to New York from Japan in 1961, reportedly with only $14 in his pocket and the phone number of conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp, who became a patron and mentor. Arakawa and his wife, Madeline Gins, collaborated on a large body of paintings, prints, poetry, installations, and architecture.
Exhibition History
Arakawa had an artistic career as what he termed an “eternal outsider.” He immigrated to New York from Japan in 1961, reportedly with only $14 in his pocket and the phone number of conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp, who became a patron and mentor. Arakawa and his wife, Madeline Gins, collaborated on a large body of paintings, prints, poetry, installations, and architecture.
Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Asian Prints
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (June 25, 2019 - December 22, 2019 )
Collections
- Modern & Contemporary
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late 19th century
late 19th century
late 19th–early 20th century
late 19th century