Vintage signed Hiro Yamagata serigraph, Key Largo city lights, limited edition 183/1000, 50.5 x 40 inches. Provenance: private owner.

Biography: Internationally known among commercial-art enthusiasts for his pop-inspired faunal and floral imagery, Yamagata is best known in the U.S. as the poster designer for the 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Committees. He's also designed commemorative works for the Air and Space Bicentennial, the U.S. Constitution's Bicentennial, the Centennial Celebration of the Eiffel Tower, the Bicentennial of the French Revolution - and painted Ronald Reagan's presidential portrait. I n 1988, Hiro was commissioned by President Ronald Reagan to do a painting as part of the one hundred year anniversary celebration of the Statue of Liberty.Hiro Yamagata was born in Shiga, Japan on June 30, 1948. He was first interested in painting in elementary school and took a special art class every day after school and through high school with his art teacher, a Japanese-style painter. After his graduation, he went to Tokyo and had part-time jobs in the advertisement field, where his talent was recognized. In 1972, Hiro began attending L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris and began to live his life through painting.Yamagata escaped to Paris in his early 20's, and met such persons as John Cage and more notably Allen Ginsberg. He also painted sets for Peter Brook. At the time, Hiro was perfecting a cartoony illustrative painting style that was not particularly Japanese. The style did so well that his work was picked up on by an outfit in California that specializes in selling undemanding middlebrow art in bulk through venues in shopping malls. Yamagata moved to Los Angeles to oversee the selling of his art, eventually opening a studio in Southern California.In the recent past, Yamagata has explored a completely different aspect of art. In 1997-98, he set out to create Element, a six-part series of environmental installations using theater lights, holographic effects and lasers. Yamagata's desire was to overwhelm the senses by transforming the "white cube" of the gallery into a spatially infinite site where the micro merges with the macro and the limits of the real are expended.

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

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