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Avant-garde art by Taro Okamoto

Today I will be talking about one of the most important avant-garde artists of all time, an artist who stood out for being broad in the development of techniques that allowed him to explore art in disciplines such as sculpture, writing, photography, painting and philosophy. I'm talking about the eclectic Taro Okamoto. Come with me to learn more about his incredible life.

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His life was characterized by a rebelliousness to the family principles, something very respected and sacred in Japan his native country, his family practically forces him to study arts in the city of Tokyo, and although he did not dislike art, you aspired to different things to his family, so once he finished his studies he moved to Paris to continue his studies in what he was passionate about, made a doctorate in ethnology mention oceanic tribes. Being in Paris he was influenced by all the avant-garde movement, where he remained some years submerged in surrealism modality.

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At the same time he had the opportunity to meet artists related to the Parisian artistic movement such as Kurt Seligmann, André Breton, he also felt seduced by the works of Picasso and although he really liked surrealism and other arts, it is abstraction that makes it his bastion of art, that's how he entered the group where the great painters of abstraction were led by Kandinsky and Mondrian the group was called Abstraction-Creation.

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Among his most famous works is The Sun Tower, which in a way was inspired by Miró, but he was also attracted by Greek classical art where he made some important sculptures, also his mural Myth of Tomorrow, inspired by the end of the Second World War and showing the theme of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

A large part of his texts are dedicated to personal research on different ethnic groups from all over the world. His studies in France took him to the Sorbonne University in 1930, his way of making art left a legacy to his people, and his main interest was the study of the occult as well as different types of cultures, in some cases was harshly criticized for their ritualistic practices sometimes considered as true cannibalistic parties or sacrifices.

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His most famous book is called Mysteries of Japan, after studying the oceanic tribes he realized the things so hidden in Japan, so he tried to generate a plastic language that finally gave a sense of belonging to the Japanese, who at that time were already westernized.

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There is a very strange anecdote about the mural Mito del mañana, which was commissioned by a multimillionaire who would build one of the largest hotels in America, specifically in Mexico, the hotel was never built, and for more than 40 years the mural was lost until it was found among rubble, was restored to show the beauty of that work.

As we can see, this artist built a system of referential images of how were the features of Asian culture, which many thanked to the point of generating videos, photographs, in order to keep the eastern ties intact.

It is probable that the new generations do not know these artists who have maintained their life thesis until today, to give way to local artists who are fleeting and only have a medium recognition by the masses.