CHRONOLOGY

1933 Born in Iberaki Prefecture, Japan

1955 Degree in Economics from Rikkyo University in Ikebukuro, Tokyo

1955-59 Staff photographer for Shincho Sha Publishing Company

1959 Co-founds VIVO, a photographers’ cooperative, with Ikko Narahara, Shomei Tomatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, Akira Sato and Akira Tanno

First solo exhibition, The Sea, at Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo

1961 Solo exhibition of The Map at Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo

1962 VIVO disbands

1965 The Map, designed by Sugiura Kohei, is published by Bijutsu Shuppan-sha

1967-69 Teaches photography at Tama Art University, Tokyo

1974 One of the 15 artists in the New Japanese Photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

1978 VIVO: Contemporary Photography, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA

1979 Cosmos of the Dream King, Ludwig II, published by Asahi Sonorama

Japan: A Self-Portrait, International Center of Photography, New York

1984-86 Publishes Nude, Ludwig II, and Caprichos

Exhibits in Japon des Avant-Gardes 1910-1970, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

1995-98 The Last Cosmology and The Globe Theater are published

2009 The Last Cosmology exhibition, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

2011 Receives lifetime achievement award from the Photographic Society of Japan

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 Los Caprichos, Demon of Tomorrow | PGI, Tokyo, Japan

The Map / Visions of the Invisible | Kyotographie International Photography Festival, KYOCERA Museum of Art, Kyoto

2022 Los Caprichos, Near Far | Photo Gallery International, Tokyo, Japan

Chizu / The Map | The Third Gallery Aya, Osaka, Japan

2020 Le Rouge et le Noir | Ricoh Imaging Square, Tokyo, Japan

Los Caprichos 1968-1981 | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York

2019 Shadow in the Shadow | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2018 Los Caprichos -Instagraphy- 2017 | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2016 Then & Now | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York

Last Things | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2014 The Last Cosmology | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York

The Last Cosmology | Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, UK

2013 UNKNOWN 2013 | Leica Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2012 2011 - Phenomena | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2011 Nikko: A Parable | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2010 World's End 2008-2010 | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2009 The Last Cosmology | The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

2008 Remote Past: Memoir 1951-1966 | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2006 ATLAS 1998-2006 | Epsite, Tokyo, Japan

Invisible City | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

Chizu | Camera Obscura, Paris, France

2005 Kikuji Kawada: Eureka/Multigraph | Shadai Gallery, Tokyo Polytechnic University, Japan

2004 The Map, 1960-1965 | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

2003 Kikuji Kawada: Theatrum Mundi | Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

2001 Eureka | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

1999 The Globe Theater | Internationale Fototage Herten, Herten, NL

1998 Car Maniac | P.G.I. Shibaura, Japan

1996 ZENO - The Last Cosmology | P.G.I. Shibaura, Japan

The Last Cosmology | Higashikawa International Photography Festival, Higashikawa, Japan

The Last Cosmology | Mitsubishi-Jisho Artium, Fukuoka, Japan

1995 The Last Cosmology | Tower Gallery, Yokohama, Japan

1986 Los Caprichos 1970-80 | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

1984 Nude Museum and Ludwig II Collection | P.G.I., Tokyo, Japan

1976 Kikuji Kawada Photographs | Shadai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1968 Sacre Atavism | Nikon Salon, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

1961 The Map | Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan

1959 The Sea | Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024 Landscape in Print: Rare Books and Photographs | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, NY

OKASHI! | Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, UK

2022 Paris Photo: Impressions on the Landscape | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs booth B30, Paris, France

AIPAD The Photography Show | Center 415 | L. Parker Stephenson/PGI booth, New York

Farewell Photography: The Hitachi Collection of Post War Japanese Photographs 1961-1989 | Phoenix Museum of Art, AZ

2021 -22 Cruel Radiance: Photography, 1940s-1960s | Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Polansky Exhibition of the New York Public Library’s Treasures | New York Public Library, NY

2021 Beginnings, Forever: from the Museum of Photographic Arts and Shinnyo-en | Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA

The Sky as Studio. Yves Klein and his contemporaries | Centre Pompidou, Metz, France

The City - The Countryside. Japanese Photography of the 1960s and 1970s from the Collection of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg |

Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

La Mirada de las cosas. Fotografia japonesa en torna a Provoke | El Circulo de Bellas Artes, PHotoEspana, Madrid, Spain

2020 Tokyo - The City: Japanese Photography from the 1960s and 1970s from the Museum der Moderne Salzburg |

Japanese Institute of Culture, Cologne, Germany

2019-20 The Gaze of Things - Japanese Photography in the Context of Provoke | BombasGens Centre d’Art, Valencia Spain

2019 Apollo’s Muse – The Moon in the Age of Photography | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Moonlight | Hasselblad Center, Goteburg, Sweden

Paris Photo, Grand Palais (Michael Hoppen Gallery booth), Paris, France

2018-19 Time Frames: Contemporary East Asian Photography Baltimore Museum of Art, MD

Portraits L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY

Liminal Encounters (AR app) Asia Society Hong Kong, HK

The Map: Eleven Works from SFMoMA’s Collection San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

2018 VIVO: Eikoh Hosoe, Kikuji Kawada, Ikko Narahara, Akira Sato, Akiro Tanno, Shomei Tomatsu IBASHO, Antwerp, Belgium

2017 Recent Acquisitions Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library, NY

Nihombashi Art Photo Exhibition Mitsukuoshi, Tokyo

Birds in a Hand PGI, Tokyo, Japan

Classic Photographs Los Angeles | Bonhams, (LPSP booth), Los Angeles, CA

A History of Photography: Selections from the Museum's Collection, Rotation Seven | Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

2016 Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA

I Am the Sun | Art Institute of Chicago, IL

In The Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3-11 | Asia Society Texas, Houston, TX

Yasuo Kazuki, Iri and Toshi Maruki, and Kikuji Kawada | Shonan, The Hiratsuka Museum of Art

From the Collection: 1960 - 1969 | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

The Sun Placed In The Abyss | Columbus Museum of Art, OH

In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3-11 | The Japan Society, New York, NY

Classic Photographs Los Angeles | Bonhams, (LPSP booth), Los Angeles, CA

2015 Conflict, Time, Photography | Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany

Season X: Celebrating a Decade | Osilas Gallery, Concordia College, Bronxville, NY, USA

Conflict, Time, Photography | Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

Metamorphosis of Japan After the War | Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK

In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3-11 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA

2014-15 The Provoke Era: Japanese Photography from the Collection of SFMoMA | Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, USA

2014 100 Years Later: Conflict, Time and Photography | Tate Modern, London, UK

AIPAD Photography Show, Park Avenue Armory | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York (booth) P.G.I., Tokyo (booth)

2012-13 Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2012 Metamorphosis of Japan After the War, photography 1945-1964 Japan Foundation, Cologne Germany (traveling exhibition)

Museum of Photography, Berlin, Germany

2011 Forest and Art | Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Photographs of Children, The Child Within Us | Tokyo Metropilitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

2006 Photography Collection: Rotation 3 | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2005 The Shadow | Vestaellands Kunstmuseum, Denmark

2003 The History of Japanese Photography

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA (traveling exhibition)

Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA

Japan 1945-1975, A Photographic Renewal | Jeu de Paume, Paris, France

2001 Open Ends | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2001-02 Illusion | Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden, (traveling exhibition)

Lunds Konstall, Sweden
Museet for Fotokunst, Denmark
Brandt ski defabrik, Odense, Denmark
The Country Museum of Joenkoeping, Sweden
Kunstbanken, Hedmark Art Centre, Hamar, Norway
Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Norway
National Gallery of Iceland, Reykyavik, Iceland

1999 Contemporary Photographic Art from Japan | Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany

Master Works, Master Photographers | Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

Exploring Photography: From the Museum Collection National Film Center | The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

1998 Waterproof | Expo '98, Lisbon, Portugal

Corridor of the Gaze / Theatrical Tableaux | Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

Realism in Postwar Japan 1945-1960 | Nagoya City Art Museum, Japan

Under / Exposed | Stockholm Photography Festival, Sweden

1995 Japanese Culture: The Fifty Postwar Years | Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

Objects, Faces and Anti-Narratives - Rethinking Modernism | Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

Works by 25 Photographers in Their 20's | Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Yamanashi, Japan

1991 Innovation in Japanese Photography in the 1960's | Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

Beyond Japan: A Photo Theatre | Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK

Photographs in Japan 1955-1965 | Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi, Japan

1990 Eye of deja-vu | Heineken Village Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1989 Photographie Japonaise | Provincial Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1988 Eight Japanese Photographers | P.G.I. Tokyo, Japan

1986 Japon des Avant-Gardes 1910-1970 | Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

The Works with Polaroid 20x24 | Shibuya Seibu Seed Hall, Tokyo, Japan

1985 Paris, New York, Tokyo | Tsukuba Museum of Photography, Ibaraki, Japan

1979 Japan: A Self-Portrait | International Center of Photography, New York, USA

1978 VIVO: Contemporary Photography | Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

1976-77 Neue Fotografie aus Japan | Kulturhaus der Stadt, Graz, Austria

1974 New Japanese Photography | Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

1963 Contemporary Japanese Photographs | National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

1962 Non | Matsuya Department Store, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

1959 The Eyes of Ten | Konishiroku Photo Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

1958 The Eyes of Ten | Konishiroku Photo Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

1957 The Eyes of Ten | Konishiroku Photo Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MONOGRAPHS

2022 Kawada, Kikuji. Vortex. Kyoto: Akaaka Publishing

2021 Kawada, Kikuji. Chizu (Maquette Edition). London: MACK Books

Kawada, Kikuji. 20. Tokyo: Bookshop M

2016 Kawada, Kikuji and Masuda Rei. Remote Past: a Memoir 1951-1966. Tokyo: FAPA and Case Publishing

2015 Kawada, Kikuji. The Last Cosmology, (reprint) London: Mack Books

2014 Kawada, Kikuji. Chizu (The Map), (reprint) Tokyo: Akio Nagasawa Publishing

2005 Kawada, Kikuji. The Map, Tokyo, (reprint) Getsuyosha and Nazraeli

2003 Kawada, Kikuji. Theatrum Mundi, Tokyo: Metropolitan Museum of Photography

1998 Kawada, Kikuji. Seikai Gekijo: The Globe Theater, self-published

1995 Kawada, Kikuji. Rasuto kosumoroji (The Last Cosmology), Tokyo: self-published

1986 Kawada, Kikuji. Los Caprichos, self-published

1984 Kawada, Kikuji. Nude, Tokyo, Shinchosha

1979 Kawada, Kikuji. Rudovihi ni-sei noshiro (Cosmos of the Dream King, Ludwig der Zweite Bavaria), Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama

Kawada, Kikuji, Castle of Ludwig II, self-published

1971 Kawada, Kikuji. Seinaru Sekai (Sacre Atavism), Tokyo: Shashin Hyoronsha

1965 Kawada, Kikuji. Chizu (The Map), Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

2019 Enguita, Nuria and Todoli, Vicente, The Gaze of Things – Japanese Photography in the Context of Provoke. Valencia: BombasGens Centre d’Art

Holborn, Mark, Sun and Moon: A Story of Astronomy, Photography and Mapping. New York: Phaidon Press

Fineman, Mia and Saunders, Beth. Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

2016 Sawyer, Drew. The Sun Placed In An Abyss, Columbus: Columbus Museum of Art

2004 Hiraki, Osam, Sayag, Alain and Takeuchi, Keeichi. Japan: A Self-Portrait 1945-1964: Flammarion

2003 Wilkes Tucker, Anne. The History of Japanese Photography, New Haven: Yale University Press

1999 The Last Ten, Nihon Camera

1998 Nagano Shigeishi, Iizawa Kotaro, and Kinoshita Naoyuki eds. Nihon no shashinka 33: Kawada Kikuji, Japanese Photographers vol 33, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten

1991 Nihon shashin no tankan: 1960 nendai no hyogin (Innovation in Japanese Photography in the 1960s), exhibition catalog, Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography

Shashin no 1955-1965 (1955-65 in Photographs: The Independent Image Group) exhibition catalog, Yamagushi: Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art

Holborn, Mark. Beyond Japan. Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK

1989 The Last Cosmology, Nihon Camera

1988 Cosmography, Asahi Camera

1986 Clouds, Nihon Camera

1984 The Sky, Camera Art

1974 New Japanese Photography, exhibition catalog, New York: Museum of Modern Art

AWARDS

2011 Lifetime Achievement Award, The Photographic Society of Japan

2004 The Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts

1996 The Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award | Domestic Artist Prize Higashikawa Award, Higashikawa International Photography Festival

COLLECTIONS

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

Bank of New York, Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Freer Gallery of Art/Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki, Japan

Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Yamanashi, Japan

Kushiro Art Museum, Kushiro, Japan

Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY

Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

New York Public Library, New York, USA

Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan

Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, USA

Sainsbury Centre Museum, Norwich, UK

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA

Tate Modern, London, UK

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA

Tate Modern, London, UK

Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Polytechnic Institute, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan

Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi, Japan