Angura: Posters of the Japanese Avant-Garde
The book reproduces, in glorious color, many of these prints and shows how risk-taking in the use of color, typography and sexual imagery-created posters that simply exuded subversiveness ("angura" means "underground"). Traces of everything from Art Nouveau to anime, from Bauhaus to Warhol are visible. Many are visually provocative, even erotically charged. Culled from an era when Japan had bounced back from World War II and was reclaiming its cultural spot in the world, this is a fascinating look at how the global images streaming into the country joined with traditional Japanese design and printing elements to create a very unusual aesthetic.sourceAssociated Press