27 artists participated
In the shape of a playing card
A small collection of works.

I found playing cards that I can't use. They were not originally made for playing (I assume). All 54 cards have different designs. Some of them have numbers and symbols drawn on them like regular playing cards, but that is only a small part of them. I took responsibility as the seller and tried to verify that all the cards were there, but it was a painstaking task. In conclusion, the images of Akira Shimizu and Natsuyuki Nakanishi are a bit far-fetched, so if you try to play a game of concentration with these cards, please be aware that your body may become weak.

The title "CARTES PEINTE" is French for picture cards, and in this case it refers to "original playing cards featuring works by 27 artists currently active at the forefront of contemporary art" (from the booklet).

The participants in the creation of these playing cards were Japanese artists active at the forefront of contemporary art, including Takamatsu Jiro, Akasegawa Genpei, Nakanishi Natsuyuki, Nakamura Hiroshi, Kikubata Mokuma, Yokoo Tadanori, Tanaami Keiichi, Murakami Yoshio, Usami Keiji, Kano Mitsuo, Ikeda Masuo, Nonaka Yuri, Motonaga Sadamasa, and Tanigawa Koichi. The accompanying booklet contains a list of cards and artists, as well as an introduction to the artists by art critic Ishizaki Koichiro. Two works by each of the 27 artists are used as illustrations, making it a collection of artwork dressed up as playing cards.

This bold and groundbreaking project was realized by Edition Nancy, located in Antique Nancy, which was located in the Hanae Mori Building in Omotesando around 1980. The publisher was Isso Miura, a well-known contemporary dancer.

In addition to the playing cards themselves, there are also items from the "Cult Panto Exhibition" (Ginza GALLERY505It comes with an invitation and a special envelope from the representative, Mario Nagamatsu. However, I don't know what year the playing cards were published and the exhibition was held. According to the chronology of participating artist Kei Suga, it was 1981, and according to Akira Shimizu, it was 1982, so I'm not sure which is which. In the first place, it's not necessarily true that the playing cards were published and the exhibition were held in the same year. Therefore, the exact time cannot be determined, and the truth remains a mystery.

After some research, I found that the same product, «CARTES PEINTE», exists in two versions: a single product and a set of two. The product I am selling this time is a set of two, one of which is in mint condition and unused. It is a gem that you may never come across again.

Book Hunter Masago Sato's tweet:
It may not be widely known, but a surprising number of gallery direct mailings do not include dates, while on the Internet there are frequent cases of conflicting information, as in this case, making it one of the headaches for ephemera dealers to determine when an exhibition was held at a gallery.
I was lucky this time to find it from the artist's chronology (although it's inconsistent). For example, when did postal codes become 7 digits? When did phone numbers become 10 digits? Who is this person? When was this building completed? To avoid the sense of futility of searching and searching without finding any clues, I beg all galleries to please include the year in your DMs. Even if something happened 40 years ago, unless it is recorded correctly, it can be very easy to lose track of it.

Text by Masago Sato