Graphic designer and painter Tadanori Yokoo was born on June 27, 1936, in Hyogo Prefecture. He began copying picture books from a young age and drawing manga while still in elementary school. He studied illustration through correspondence courses in high school and began creating oil paintings and posters. After graduating, he worked at a local printing company, the Kobe Shimbun newspaper, and the Japan Design Center before going independent as an illustrator in 1965. He held a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1972. After being inspired by Picasso's paintings in 1980, he has since focused primarily on painting. He has exhibited his work both in Japan and abroad, and has received numerous awards, including the Gold Medal at the Warsaw International Poster Biennale (1974), the Mainichi Art Award (1995), and the Medal with Purple Ribbon (2001). The Tadanori Yokoo Museum of Contemporary Art opened in Nada Ward, Kobe, in 2012.

He has also been active in a wide range of fields other than painting, starring in Nagisa Oshima's film "Diary of a Shinjuku Thief" (1969), and his first collection of novels, "Blue Land," published in 2008, won the Izumi Kyoka Literature Prize.

In addition, from June 28th to September 23rd, the Kawasaki City Museum in Kanagawa will be hosting "Yokoo Tadanori Portrait Picture Book: HUMAN ICONS," a collection of portraits of a diverse range of people, including actors, writers, and musicians.