Aquirax Uno

Came across this weird Japanese artist via Peter Tasker.

Akira Uno –  also known as “Aquirax” – is a prolific illustrator and graphic designer who came to prominence as the creator of ground-breaking posters for Shuji Terayama’s Tenjo Sajiki theatre group in the late 1960s.

His blend of Aubrey Beardsley-like eroticism with Max Ernst-style surrealism and sixties psychedelia helped to establish the underground ambience of Terayama’s theatre work.

Here is more about the artist and the cultural background:

Eight years ago, I discovered Aquirax Uno the old-fashioned way: by digging through the stacks of a used bookstore in my hometown in Northern California. I stumbled on a pile of old Japanese graphic design magazines and since they were a dollar each, I grabbed as many as I could. In one of them, I came across several strange, creepy-but-beautiful drawings of nude women in all manner of repose: one had an oversized mollusk bearing human teeth lapping at her crotch, one was a half-horse creature with eyelashes so long they looked like spiders, and my absolute favorite was one that featured a woman in a bathtub with a giant penis-shaped hairdo and one extra long, very hairy leg. I was blown away. All of the images were signed “Aquirax.” I searched on the Internet and found a book called Aquirax Uno: Posters 1959-1975 and very little else.

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For those that are unfamiliar with his work, Akira (Aquirax) Uno was at the forefront of a group of Japanese avant-garde artists and designers like Tadanori Yokoo, Keiichi Tanaami and Tsunao Harada, as well as renowned manga artists like Sanpei Shirato, Seiichi Hayashi, and Katsuhiro Otomo, all of whom emerged from angura, the subversive underground theater movement that began in the ’60s in Tokyo. Influenced by the rebellious political climate of postwar Japan which was brought on by “manga generation” student protest groups, these artists introduced a new style of illustration and visual art through the posters they created for angura theater troupes like Terayama Shuji’s Tenjo Sajiki and Kara Juro’s Situation Theater. These posters expressed the chaotic mood of the times with wild colors and bold, sometimes shocking, imagery. Many of the graphics created for angura drew from diverse artistic movements, mixing Edo-period iconography and Art Nouveau lettering with collaged photos and calligraphy. The result was a style that still feels as original and breathtaking today as it was back then.

More of his art here.