The idea of a retrospective makes me nervous. Simply put, it often signals the end of something. So in the case of a designer's show, a retrospective feels like a parting shot, final note or a bid farewell. Not what you want if your motivation is continuous relevance.
Visiting the latest show at 21_21 Design Sight, therefore, comes with a sense of trepidation. Designed by Tadao Ando in 2007, the gallery aims to serve and promote the best of Japanese design and designers. Seen through the eyes of exhibition director Kazuko Koike, designer Masaaki Hinomura (previously a member of Ikko Tanaka design studio) and a younger contingent of special contributors, the current Ikko Tanaka exhibition looks beyond the man himself and toward the future generation his work has influenced. Although the venue's reverence is more than noticeable, the exhibition holds its own in such weighty surroundings, presenting both Tanaka and his lifetime of achievement.
The show is split into three main areas. Gallery 1 concentrates on book work, with books displayed like objects, showing slipcases and inner-sleeves, and black-boxed vitrines of found material that were used to create the cover image of "The Japanese Annual of Illustration '68."