Searching for Japanese Artist

[MattM]

Several years ago, when I lived in Japan, I had a couple of prints from a certain artist. The prints are long gone and I don't recall the artist's name, web searches have turned up nothing.

The era would have been late 1970's through mid 1980's. The style is sort of pop-art, in that the pictures were "cartoon-like" in their use of primary, simplistic coloring (very little shading or texture). If I had to compare to other well-known artists, Roy Lichtenstein or Peter Max might be close, but not too close.

The subject matter is very distinctive - best described as "California Scenes". Things like beaches, freeways, freeway signs, gas stations, etc. I had one print that was simply a 1950's era car parked in a modern Texaco station. But, in almost every print, there were patterns of geometric figures just sort of "drifting through space." These blend in to the scene so they're often not even noticed.

Another clue: Around 1982 or so, MacDonalds in Japan was giving away a series of paper sleeves for cassette tapes (you know, where you write in the songs you've recorded), that featured California scenes from this artist.

Any guesses???

Thanks,

- Matt

 

[MattM]

Been researching this further, and no luck yet, but I ran across a work that is somewhat similar.

Pop artist Edward Ruscha did a similar treatement with a gas station in 1966. Link here. Take that picture, make the colors lighter and more realistic (blue sky, green grass, etc.) and it is very close. Just need to add those subtle, drifting, geometric shapes and it's a match!

Been looking for a book on Japanese Pop art, but there seems to be little reference works that are post-traditional, yet pre-anime.

Still searching,

- Matt