Creator of disturbing and intricate abstract designs, Tatsuo Ikeda was one of the pioneers of the avant-garde scene in post-war Tokyo. Already the first works of the 50s, rendered in black and white and in soft colors, reflected the strong stance of the artist against the war, as evidenced by the distressing series Anti-Atomic Bomb, Chronicle of Birds and Beasts and Genealogy of Monsters. Selected by the Japanese army as a kamikaze pilot during the Second World War, but fortunately never sent on suicide flights, Ikeda was strongly influenced by the horrors of the conflict, which echo in works characterized by a surrealist vein and populated by threatening creatures that allude to the catastrophe of atomic bombs and the corrupting powers of nationalism.
