Kohei Yoshiyuki's (Japan, b. 1946), The Park was shot in three Tokyo parks during the early seventies and is a series of black and white photographs capturing couples meeting up for clandestine trysts and, more provocatively, the voyeurs who came out to watch them. First exhibited in 1979 at Komai Gallery in Tokyo, the uproar surrounding his methods caused these photographs to be hidden from the public for the next 28 years.
The work was featured at the Berlin Biennial in 2008 and sits in almost every major public collection: Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Museum of Modern Art (New York), North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Hessel Museum at Bard College and others.
| BORN | |
| 1946, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan | |
| SOLO EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2011 | Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada |
| The Park: Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (Travelling Exhibition) | |
| 2010 | The Park, M+B, Los Angeles, CA |
| The Park, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden, Germany | |
| 2008 | The Park, ALP/Peter Bergman, Stockholm, Sweeden |
| The Park, Galleri Brandstrup, Olso, Norway | |
| The Park, Brancolini Grimaldi Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy | |
| 2007 | The Park, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY |
| The Park and Love Hotel, Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver, Canada | |
| 1979 | Koen [Park], Komai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
| GROUP EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2011 | Night Vision: Photography After Dark, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
| 2010 | The 70s, PhotoEspaña 2009, The Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam |
| Disquieting Images, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy | |
| Exposed: Voyeurism, surveillance and the Camera, The Tate Modern, London (traveling exhibition: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center) | |
| Provocateurs of Japanese Photography, Kathleen Collen Fine Arts, New York | |
| 2009 | The Provoke Era, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA |
| The 70s, PhotoEspaña 2009, Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid, Spain [Travelling Exhibition: Palazzo Civico, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville, Spain] | |
| 2008 | Paris Photo, Brancolini Grimaldi Arte Contemporanea, Paris, France |
| 5th Berlin Biennial of Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany | |
| 7th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea | |
| Blue Sky, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden, Germany | |
| Darkside, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zϋrich, Switzerland | |
| to:Night: Contemporary Representations of the Night, The Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, NY | |
| The Greenroom: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art, CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY | |
| COLLECTIONS | |
| Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY | |
| Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL | |
| Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX | |
| Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY | |
| North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC | |
| San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA | |
| Swedish Art Council, Stockholm, Sweden | |
| SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY | |
| 2008 | When Things Cast No Shadow [catalog]. Fifth Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art. |
| Ollier, Brigitte. “Avis aux mateurs.” Libération. 14 November 2008. | |
| Wallace, Maria. “Peepshow: The spectacle of sex: Erotic Visions: The Body Exposed.” Exit. No. 29: 40-42. 2008. | |
| Broverman, Neal. “Public Affairs.” The Advocate. 20 November 2007: 13. | |
| “Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park. [book review]” D.A.P. Spring 2008. | |
| 2007 | Yoshiyuki, Kohei. Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park. Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz and Yossi Milo Gallery, 2007. |
| Corbijn, Anton. [for “On My Mind”]. Foam [Netherlands] Winter 2007: 17. | |
| Maine, Stephen. “Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park at Yossi Milo Gallery, New York [review].” Art on Paper November/ December 2007: 95-6. | |
| Marques, Ricardo. “À espereita no parque.” Sabado November, 2007. | |
| Lebowitz, Cathy. “The Park: Kohei Yoshiyuki.” Interview with Josefina Ayerza. Lacanian Ink November, 2007: 163-7. | |
| Latimer, Quinn. “Kohei Yoshiyuki.” Modern Painters November 2007: 93. | |
| Woodward, Richard B. “Barefoot (and more!) in the park.” Guardian America 23 October 2007. | |
| “Art + Selects: Art: Under Wraps.” The New York Sun 16 October 2007. | |
| Rosenberg, Karen. “Kohei Yoshiyuki [review].” The New York Times 12 October 2007. | |
| Harris, Jane. “Kohei Yoshiyuki, ‘The Park.’” Time Out New York 4 October 2007. | |
| Camhi, Leslie. “Voyeur in Tokyo.” The Village Voice 3 October 2007. | |
| Kuan, Debora. “Kohei Yoshiyuki [review].” Artforum 1 October 2007. | |
| Sigler, Jeremy. “Kohei Yoshiyuki [review].” The Brooklyn Rail October, 2007. | |
| Budick, Ariella. “Using a lens to pry into others’ private passions [review].” Newsday 28 September 2007. | |
| Gefter, Philip. “Sex in the Park, And Its Sneaky Spectators.” The New York Times 23 September 2007. | |
| Genocchio, Benjamin. “The Listings: Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park.” The New York Times 7 September 2007. | |
| “Previews: Kohei Yoshiyuki.” The Village Voice 5-7 September: Vol. LII, No. 36. | |
| “A Lost Voyeur’s Paradise.” New York Magazine 3 September 2007. | |
| “Kohei Yoshiyuki [review].” The New Yorker 3 September 2007. | |
| Genocchio, Benjamin. “The Week Ahead: Art [review].” The New York Times 2 September 2007: AR2. | |
| “Voyeurismo a Tokyo negli scatti di Yoshiyuki.” La Repubblica September 2007. | |
| “Down in the Park: Yoshiyuki Kohei’s Nocturnes, Interview by Araki Nobuyoshi.” Aperture Fall 2007. | |
| 2006 | Badger, Gerry. "Document Kouen." The Photobook: A History, Volume II. Ed. Martin Parr and Gerry Badger. London/NY: Phaidon Press, 2006: 296-297. |
| 1992 | Yoshiyuki, Kohei. Sekigai Kosen [Infrared Light]. Tokyo: Hokuso-sha, 1992. |
| 1980 | Yoshiyuki, Kohei. Document: Koen [Document: Park]. Tokyo: Seven-sha, 1980. |
| 1973 | Yamagishi, Shoji, “Editor's Note.” Camera Mainichi February 1973: 278. |
| "Kohei Yoshiyuki: Koen [Park]." Camera Mainichi February 1973: 127-133. | |
| 1972 | Weekly Shincho. |