From anime to fine art: Japan's Yoshitaka Amano is celebrated with a major retrospective

MILAN — In a career spanning more than 50 years, Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano has gained a following as an animator, illustrator, video game creator and fine artist. All those facets are on display in the largest retrospective of his work in the West, which opened Wednesday in Milan.

The “Amano Corpus Animae” exhibition celebrates Amano as a transversal artist whose Japanese style has been infused with Western influences, from the Italian Renaissance to Marvel superheroes and Pop Art.

Curator Fabio Viola said the exhibition aims to give the 72-year-old Amano “an artistic dignity” with his first major European show.

Amano's prolific career across media — from his start as an animator at the Tatsunoko studio at age 15 to recent work including posters celebrating Puccini’s centenary — reflects his notion that an artist is someone with many talents.

"From what I see in Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, artists cover everything. They did sculptures, costume designs and, of course, paintings,” Amano said during a press preview on Tuesday.

Some fans may recognize his work as an animator for Tasunoko, where Amano trained making sketches of the anime version of Speed Racer before going on to create such characters as Gatchaman and Tekkaman.

Striking out on his own in the 1980s, Amano illustrated such science fantasy classics as the Vampire Hunter D novel series and made his mark in the video game arena with the Final Fantasy franchise.

The exhibition also includes more recent, and perhaps lesser-known, works: an illustration of a model for the January 2020 issue of Vogue Italia, its only cover ever not to feature a live model; an album cover for David Bowie featuring the artist and his wife, Iman; and the Candy Girl series of Pop Art and manga-inspired paintings on aluminum.

“There were people who grew up with my works in real time. Those from the 1970s, I think, will appreciate my animation. Video games for the next generation, while the art can be recognized by two or three generations,’’ Amano said.

Viola selected the 137 original works on display from Amano’s vast archive of more than 10,000 drawings, paintings and other works stored in three warehouses in Tokyo. Amano does not sell any work that has not been specifically commissioned, Viola said, and he had not seen many pieces since storing them decades ago.

“Every fan would immediately recognize his style,” Viola said. “True, it is full of influences. Whoever has a little background in art history would find art nouveau, Klimt, bites of Renaissance, or the Ukiyo-e and the traditional Japanese art prints techniques. But all of this is revisited in a way that Amano’s woman is clearly Amano’s woman."

Trademarks include the lightly drawn eyebrows, smears of color and the brush strokes of acrylic paint, Viola said.

The retrospective was organized by Lucca Comics with the city of Milan and runs through March 1 at the Fabbrica del Vapore.