The Kitasono Katué Archive

The Kitasono Katue archive is the largest, most comprehensive collection of material in the world by and about Kitasono Katue (1902-1978), who is widely considered to be among the finest artist-poets of his generation in Japan and internationally. It was collected and arranged by Kitasono’s principal biographer, the scholar and poet John Solt.

Containing paintings, photography, mixed-media work, manuscript material, journals, correspondence, and a large collection of rare pre- and post-war books, magazines and ephemera, the archive illuminates Kitasono’s key role in Japanese modernism. It explores his many international and cross-cultural connections, from his early engagement with Dada and Surrealism to his later collaborations with artists and poets from the Black Mountain School and international Concrete Poetry movement.

A prospectus for the archive as well as an itemized finding aid in Japanese and English are available upon request. An online exhibition and research hub we designed for Kitasono is on the web here.