Maibara Japan – 1948

“Considered on of the most famous silkscreen artists because of his use of vivid colors.”

Hiro Yamagata won awards for his use of light while in high school between 1964-1967. He became a student of Masachika Sugimura in 1967 before moving to Tokyo where he worked part-time at an artist’s material shop. He later became an illustrator and a designer for an advertising company.

Yamagata moved to Milan in 1972 to live with a girlfriend. When the relationship when sour he decided to move to Paris. His first solo exhibition was held in Wien in 1973 where most of his works were paintings in water and oil colors. In 1974 he combined his fascination with Jazz music by holding Jazz events while displaying installation work using lasers at a theater in Paris.

Yamagata moved to Los Angeles in 1978 and started to use bright silkscreen colors in his work. He produced work for the Air & Space Bicentennial in 1983, the 1984 Olympics, the hundredth memorial anniversary of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, the Australia foundation memorial in 1988, and the hundredth anniversary of the Eiffel Tower in 1988.

In 1987 he established the Yamagata Foundation and has held charity events for physically disadvantaged people. He also donated all sales of his piece “Fireworks” to the International Red Cross Society for victims’ relief of the San Francisco Earthquake.

In 1990 he held a solo exhibition at Mexico City National Museum of Art and participated in a “Very Special Arts” charity art event in 1993. He exhibited “the new Golf series” made in collaboration with Jack Nicholas.