Ambiguous Beauty/Aimai-No-Bi

1995

Yasumasa Morimura

(Japanese, b. 1951)

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Culture

Japan

Medium

printed paper fan

Credit Line

Gift in Memory of Toby Devan Lewis 2024.89.a

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Through makeup, props, elaborate costumes, and digital manipulation, the artist transforms himself into different subjects, often drawing from Western art and popular culture.

Description

One side of Yasumasa Morimura’s handheld folding fan features the male artist posing as Marilyn Monroe in a full-length nude centerfold photographed by Tom Kelley in 1953 for the inaugural issue of Playboy magazine. The reverse of the fan is printed with the Japanese character for “love.” While in Japanese society fans were used by both sexes, they are commonly thought of as a female accessory and in Western society, a prop evoking modesty. Morimura challenges definitions of identity and gender boundaries by depicting himself in the guise of famous female figures in artworks and historic images.