Yasumasa Morimura

Yasumasa Morimura was born in Osaka-fu in 1951. After graduating Kyoto City University of Arts, he began creating black and white photographic works in which objects were assembled. Following his work based on Van Gogh’s self-portrait (released in 1985), he experienced a sudden rise to fame for photographic works in which he dressed up as a famous painting in the history of art. He participated in numerous exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, including the Venice Biennale Aperto section in 1988 and “Against Nature: Japanese Art in the’80s” (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, others)in 1989. He also exhibited his work at “Art Now” in 1988 and 1990 (Kansai Contemporary Art of the 1980s). From the mid-90s, he expanded the scope of his work to include classic movie actresses, and in the 2000s, men captured in news photographs, while consistently working on unique self-portraits that “became” well-known images. In 2018, Morimura’s own private museum, the M@M (Morimura@museum) was established at Kitakagaya, Osaka.