Michael Hoppen Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Recent additions
  • Exhibitions & Art Fairs
  • Viewing Room
  • Bookshop
  • Newsletter
  • Care for your Artwork
  • ABOUT/CONTACT
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
  • Current
  • Past
  • Online

Kikuji Kawada: The Last Cosmology

Past exhibition
29 November 2014 - 31 January 2015
  • Works
  • Overview
  • Press
  • News
Works
  • Kikuji Kawada, The Last Golden Ring Eclipse in Japan, Yomitanson, Okinawa, 1987
    Kikuji Kawada, The Last Golden Ring Eclipse in Japan, Yomitanson, Okinawa, 1987
  • Kikuji Kawada, Moon trail, Tokyo, 1989
    Kikuji Kawada, Moon trail, Tokyo, 1989
  • Kikuji Kawada, Aurora borealis (Substorm) Chena Hotsprings, Alaska, USA, 1989
    Kikuji Kawada, Aurora borealis (Substorm) Chena Hotsprings, Alaska, USA, 1989
  • Kikuji Kawada, The last golden ring eclipse in Japan, Yomitanson, Okinawa, Japan, 1987
    Kikuji Kawada, The last golden ring eclipse in Japan, Yomitanson, Okinawa, Japan, 1987
  • Kikuji Kawada, Helio-Spot and a Helicopter, Tokyo, 1990
    Kikuji Kawada, Helio-Spot and a Helicopter, Tokyo, 1990
Overview
Kikuji Kawada, The Last Cosmology
The Michael Hoppen Gallery is proud to announce the first solo UK exhibition of Kikuji Kawada’s ‘The Last Cosmology’ series. Originally published in parts in the 1980s, it was compiled into a publication and solo exhibition in 1995.  Part of Kawada’s "Catastrophe Trilogy," the chronicle seemingly ties together the drama of the skies with the end of two historical eras on earth: the ‘Showa’ era with the death of the Emperor in Japan and the 20th century.
 

 
I was born at the beginning of the Showa Era. There was a great war during my boyhood and then I lived during the period of re-construction and growth and now I slowly approach the evening of life. Through these photographs the cosmology is an illusion of the firmament at the same time it includes the reality of an era and also the cosmology of a changing heart.
 
- Kikuji Kawada
 

 
Before modern science, people presumed there was a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events of the human world. The ‘Last Cosmology’ reveals a fleeting empathy for this ancient astrology and a fascination with the firmament. Inspired by the apocalyptic sky-scapes of the painter Emil Nolde, Kawada became preoccupied with photographing abnormal and catastrophic weather. In his own words: “It is then that I imagine the era and myself as an implicitly intermingling catastrophe and I want to spy on the depths of a multihued heart that is like a Karman vortex”
 
Kawada’s best known project ‘The Map’, has been on display concurrently at Tate Modern, as part of their ‘Conflict, Time, Photography’ exhibition. Originally published in 1965, the series documents the aftermath of the atomic bomb and the war in Japan (beyond meaning, invisible violence, widespread destruction and human loss). At first glance ‘Last Cosmology’ and ‘The Map’ are inherently different bodies of work. ‘The Map’ concentrates on surface, the stains burnt into the ceiling of the Hiroshima a-bomb dome and the detritus of occupation; while ‘Last Cosmology’ looks to the extra-terrestrial as a cypher for earthly events. Both books however share a narrative that is both personal and universal. Although rooted in the Japanese experience, they are essays on the human condition.
 
Born in the Ibaraki Prefecture in 1933, Kikuji Kawada is a renowned Japanese photographer. He co-founded the VIVO collective in 1959 with Akira Sato, Eikoh Hosoe, Ikko Narahara, Akira Tanno and Shomei Tomatsu.  He had his first solo exhibition in the same year, before exhibiting ‘The Map’ in 1961 at Fuji Photo Salon in Tokyo.  Kawada taught photography at the Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1967. He was also, notably, one of the fifteen artists selected for the “New Japanese Photography” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1974. In 2011 Kawada received a lifetime achievement award from the Photographic Society of Japan, underscoring his international and national acclaim. 
 
Press
  • Dark night rising: the photographer who captured the mystery of the eclipse

    Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, March 19, 2015
  • Kikuji Kawada - The Last Cosmology

    Artsy, December 4, 2014
  • KIKUJI KAWADA: THE LAST COSMOLOGY

    Paris Photo Agenda Online, December 1, 2014
  • Kikuji Kawada. The Last Cosmology

    Wall Street International Art Online, December 1, 2014
  • The Last Cosmology by Kikuji Kawada

    AnOther Magazine, November 30, 2014
News
  • Kikuji Kawada

    Kikuji Kawada

    The Last Cosmology March 21, 2015
    MACK unveils new edition of The Last Cosmology - Kikuji Kawada. Outstanding Japanese photographer.
    Read more

Related artist

  • Kikuji Kawada

    Kikuji Kawada

Back to Past exhibitions

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Gallery: 10 Portland Road • London • W11 4LA

Archive: Unit 10, Pall Mall Deposit • 124-128 Barlby Road • London • W10 6BL

Tel: +44 (0)20 7352 3649  •  gallery@michaelhoppengallery.com

Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
View on Google Maps
Manage cookies
Terms & Conditions
© Michael Hoppen Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Sign up

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.