Ain't That Poster Love

This was definitely one of the highlights of Mum's holiday for me. After a quick visit to the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake Museum, we went to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art to see an exhibition of paintings by Yoshitaka Amano entitled The World Beyond Your Imagination. Amano is my favourite Japanese artist, in fact probably my favourite living artist. Like other favourite artists of mine, such as Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt, he blurs the boundary between fine art, commercial art and advertising. I was particularly delighted to see some of his original paintings for Neil Gaiman's The Dream Hunters. In fact, I took my copy of that book with me to the gallery just in case, you know, Gaiman or Amano happened to be there. Other highlights were his Final Fantasy paintings and original animation cels for Gatchaman aka G.Force aka Battle of the Planets. In the museum shop, I fell in love with the exhibition guide book so my Mum bought it for me as my birthday present in advance. Here is a link to the book which gives a good guide to the exhibition too.

Extra - despite the usual signs saying "No Photography," I watched one lady snapping happily away as an attendant watched her and said not a word. So, I got my Mum to take this photo for me. This painting kicks Picasso's Guernica into the gutter, I reckon.