Yūtokutaishi Akiyama

Yūtokutaishi Akiyama (秋山 祐徳太子, Akiyama Yūtokutaishi) (1935 – 3 April 2020) was a Japanese engraver artist, photographer, and occasional politician.[1]

Born (as Sukenori Akiyama, 秋山 祐徳[2]) in 1935 in Tokyo, Akiyama studied engraving at Musashino Art School, the predecessor of Musashino Art University, and then worked as an industrial designer for an electrical company. He started exhibiting his own tin engravings and other work from 1965, and in both 1975 and 1979 stood in elections for Governor of Tokyo, bringing pop art into the process.[1]

Exhibitions of his work have included "Akiyama Yūtokutaishi no sekai-ten" (秋山祐徳太子の世界展) in Ikeda 20-Seiki Bijutsukan (池田20世紀美術館, Itō, Shizuoka) in 1994.[1]

From 1999 until 2003, Akiyama was an adjunct professor at Sapporo University.[1]

From 1992 until around 2009, Akiyama joined Genpei Akasegawa and Yutaka Takanashi in the informal group Raika Dōmei.[1]

Akiyama appears in the film Yūheisha/Terorisuto (dir. Masao Adachi, 2007).[3]

Work by Akiyama is in the permanent collection of the Tokushima Modern Art Museum.[4]

Akiyama died on 3 April 2020.[2]

Books by Akiyama

  • Tsūzokuteki geijutsuron: Poppu-āto no tatakai (通俗的芸術論 ポップ・ア-トのたたかい). Tokyo: Doyō Bijutsusha, 1985. (in Japanese)
  • Hōmatsu ketsujin retsuden: Shirazaru chō-zen'ei (泡沫桀人列伝 知られざる超前衛). Tokyo: Nigensha, 2002. ISBN 4-544-02037-9. (in Japanese)
  • Buriki otoko (ブリキ男). Tokyo: Shōbunsha, 2007. ISBN 978-4-7949-6708-4. (in Japanese)
  • Tennen rōjin: Konna ni tanoshii dokkyo-seikatsu (天然老人 こんなに楽しい独居生活). ASCII Shinsho. Tokyo: ASCII Media Works, 2008. ISBN 978-4-04-867241-2. (in Japanese)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Description (in Japanese) of the Raika Dōmei exhibition "Hakata Yamadori", Gallery 58. Accessed 15 March 2009.
  2. ^ a b 美術家の秋山祐徳太子さん死去, Kyodo News, 3 April 2020. Accessed 5 April 2020.
  3. ^ IMDB page for the film (in English) (accessed 15 March 2009).
  4. ^ As stated in the museum's page about Akiyama (in Japanese) (accessed 15 March 2009).