Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Genpei Akasegawa, RIP







Genpei Akasegawa, perhaps the only artist to be best-known for an exhibition invitation, has died at the age of 77.

Genpei Akasegawa, with the Hi Red Centre group he founded, mailed a reproduced 1,000 yen note as an invitation to their 1963 exhibition. The card contained a monochromatic reproduction of the bill on the front and the verso had information regarding the exhibit. A year later they were noticed by the police and he was indicted on charges of counterfeit forgery. In August of 1966, the case went to trial and was dubbed the "Thousand-Yen Bill Incident." Part of the artist's defense was to wrap the jury in string. He was found guilty in 1967, appealed twice and twice lost.



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