# Yasumasa Morimura artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/yasumasa-morimura/
Profile generated: 2026-05-29T20:40:02.513Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1951-06-11
- Nationality: Japanese
- Movements: Appropriation art, Contemporary art
- Common media: Photography, Video art, Live performance, Film

## About Yasumasa Morimura

Yasumasa Morimura (born 1951, Osaka, Japan) is a contemporary Japanese photographer, video artist, and performer whose practice centers on inserting his own costumed visage into canonical Western artworks and photographs. Since the 1980s, he has re-enacted paintings by Velázquez, Manet, van Gogh, and others—transforming himself through elaborate makeup, props, and digital manipulation to explore the fluidity of identity across gender, race, and cultural boundaries. Morimura's work interrogates postcolonial power dynamics and the Western gaze upon Asia, asking who gets to inhabit the frame of art history. His photographs, videos, and live performances have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate (London), and in major international surveys including the Rencontres d'Arles and Prospect Frankfurt. Trained at a Japanese university and active since the late 1970s, Morimura is recognized internationally as a leading figure in contemporary appropriation art.

## Common works and media

Morimura is best known for large-format chromogenic color prints in which he substitutes his own face and body for those of figures in famous paintings—most notably works referencing Velázquez's Las Meninas, Manet's Olympia, and self-portraits by van Gogh and Rembrandt. These photographic prints are typically produced in limited editions. He also creates video works and staged live performances extending the same conceptual framework. Black-and-white photographic series, smaller-format prints, and later digital composites appear less frequently but are part of his broader auction footprint.

## Market and appraisal context

Morimura's auction presence spans contemporary photography, Asian contemporary art, and post-war and contemporary sales. Large-format chromogenic prints from his best-known series—particularly those re-staging famous Western portraits—are the works most frequently encountered at auction. Edition size, print date, condition, and the specific series all influence collectible value. Provenance tied to major museum exhibitions or prominent galleries can increase buyer confidence. Because Morimura works across photography, video, and performance, his output covers a range of price tiers, and appraisal requires identifying the medium, edition details, and exhibition history of the individual work.

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page combines identity research drawn from museum records, library authority files, and published biographical sources with available auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot data. Market context is general in nature and should be supplemented with a professional appraisal for specific valuation questions.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q595342
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500115979
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/57467543/
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/7631
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/yasumasa-morimura-16359
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/246072
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasumasa_Morimura
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr96043580