Friday, Dec. 31, 2010

Japanese art has come a long way: a curator's top five 2010 exhibitions

As festivals took art out of the 'white cube,' galleries also began thinking outside the box

By SHINYA WATANABE

Special to The Japan Times

This year's art scene was largely dominated by two new major events, the Aichi Triennale and the Setouchi International Art Festival, both of which not only utilized gallery space, but showed a large number of works outside of the "white cube." They indicated a trend in Japan of art tourism merging with the stimulation of local economies, something that in today's economic climate, appears to have proved successful.

Meanwhile, under some pressure from the growing influence of neighboring countries, such as China and Korea, Japanese art professionals — not only artists but also exhibition and event organizers — are coming up with innovative forms of expression in the search for new forms of art. There were plenty of wonderful art exhibitions organized by museums and commercial galleries exploring this. Here are my top five, each of which I believe is of significance in Japanese contemporary art.

"Yasumasa Morimura: A Requiem — Art on Top of The Battlefield"
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (March 11-May 9). Now showing at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art till Jan. 10.

Tales of the unexpected: "A Requiem: Unexpected Visitors / 1945, Japan" (2010) from "A Requiem: Art on top of a Battlefield" by Yasumasa Morimura © YASUMASA MORIMURA, COURTESY OF SHUGO ARTS

Known for his self portraits in which he transformed himself into famous Hollywood actresses, Yasumasa Morimura surprised his fans this year by turning himself into several men for this "Requiem" series of images.

For Morimura, the 20th century was a time of war and an age of "the man." He chose to portray historical figures ranging from Western modern art masters, such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, to heroes of the third world, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Che Guevara. Japanese cultural icons were also included, such as manga author Osamu Tezuka and writer Yukio Mishima.

All were impressive portrayals; however, his most challenging piece has to be "A Requiem: Unexpected Visitors / 1945, Japan."

Born in 1951, the year that marked the end of the Allied Occupation, Morimura considers himself to be the offspring of the United States and Japan. For this image, he staged a wedding-like photo with General Douglas MacArthur of the United States as his father and Emperor Hirohito of Japan as his mother — both photographed at his real parents' green-tea merchant house in Osaka. Emperor Hirohito and his actions during World War II continues to be an extremely sensitive subject in Japan, yet here Morimura tackles the Imperial family without raising any tension among Japanese right wingers.

His new video "Gift of Sea: Raising a Flag on the Summit of the Battlefield," based on Shigeru Aoki's painting "Umi-no-sachi" ("Gifts of Sea," 1904), reinterprets Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo of soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945. By making this a self-portrait, Morimura effectively narrates and questions transitions of the 20th century from both a 20th-century world-historical point of view as well as on a personal level.

"Isson Tanaka: The New Total Picture"
Chiba City Museum of Art (Aug. 21- Sept. 26)

Born in 1908 in Tochigi Prefecture, nihonga (Japanese-style painting) artist Isson Tanaka found little opportunity to show his work, especially after he moved to southern Amami Island at age 50. When he passed away in 1977, he was still completely unknown. It was not until a TV program in the 1980s showed his work and described him as a "Japanese Paul Gauguin" that Tanaka started to garner public attention.

This exhibition, the largest ever of Tanaka's works, was indeed the "total picture." It covered unknown works, including early paintings created during his childhood, others painted when he lived in Chiba Prefecture and later works he completed on Amami Island. Tanaka's compositions are daring for nihonga — like huge wide-angle lens photographs — with pine trees and tropical foliage set against backgrounds of southern blue skies and wide oceans.

All the art works — from his early classically influenced and calligraphic pieces, to his later, bolder works — were displayed to create a narrative context about Tanaka, giving the exhibition profound historical significance. It's no wonder it turned out to be a blockbuster of a show, where even the exhibition catalog sold out.

The curator of this grand exhibition, really should be applauded for introducing this talented and previously unknown artist in such a comprehensive and impressive manner.

"Shadows: Works from the National Museums of Art"
The National Art Center, Tokyo (Sept. 8-Oct. 18)

A collaboration of five national museums in Japan, this massive exhibition brought together a wide variety of mediums under the theme of "Shadows." One hundred and seventy works were selected from more than 33,300 artworks housed in the five museums.

Not only was this a rare opportunity to enjoy such a wide selection of fine quality of work in a single location, but the cross- genre artworks also allowed viewers to compare and contrast Western and Japanese painting, Japanese and foreign photography, and crafts and design.

Being able to see works by the likes of painter Gustave Courbet alongside Japanese near contemporaries such as Ryusei Kishida was fascinating. And after understanding the historical contexts and transitions of how modern artists approached shadows, contemporary expressions — such as Jiro Takamatsu's "shadow painting" and Krzysztof Wodiczko's metaphoric use of shadows in video art — became more accessible to the viewer. Particularly powerful were the substantial number of photographs from acclaimed artists such as Alfred Stieglitz, Robert Frank, Seiichi Furuya and Daido Moriyama.

"Genpei Akasegawa: Harvest from a Walk"
Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino (Oct. 22-Nov. 7)

Local humor: "Jurassic Washbowl" (2008) by Genpei Asagawa. COURTESY OF THE YOKOHAMA CIVIC ART GALLERY AZAMINO

Born in 1937, the avant-garde artist Genpei Akasegawa is perhaps best known for the 1960s "Thousand-yen bill incident," when he was indicted for counterfeiting ¥1,000 notes to make invites to one of his shows. Since then, he has matured greatly. This exhibition displayed photographs taken by the artist during walks he took in his neighborhood in the last four years.

Since the '70s, Akasegawa has been taking photos of ordinary objects that look like conceptual artworks — a fun concept that became known as "Hyper-Art Thomasson." Also an Akutagawa Prize-winning author with a way with words, Akasegawa liked to give humorous titles to his unusual photos of ordinary objects. He titled a photo capturing the very tip of the Diet Building directly behind major construction work "Enlarging the Diet Building"; while an image of a trash bag with "nonflammable" printed on one side is titled "The House of Classification." The show celebrated a joyful freedom of photography, illustrating Akasegawa's talent for capturing transient moments of our everyday lives just before the art of them escapes us.

"Fumito Urabe: A Silent Wasteland"
Gallery Side 2 (Nov. 5-Dec. 4)

Loaded with ideas: "My Vehicle (Daughter)" (2010) by Fumito Urabe. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GALLERY SIDE 2

"A Silent Wasteland" was the debut solo exhibition of Fumito Urabe, a 26-year-old Aichi-based artist who, unusually, also trained to become a Buddhist priest.

Right at the entrance of the exhibition space, miniature farming tools made of decayed wood and metal were unassumingly hung on the wall. On another wall, small paintings on tin plates, which compositionally use unpainted spaces in a similar way to Cezanne, give us a lyrical impression. The allegorical "My Vehicle (Daughter)" — a red tinplate miniature car, displayed on a pedestal and loaded with small boxes containing stones, wood and seeds — is a poignant piece that beautifully leaves its interpretation to the viewer's imagination.

Urabe draws much inspiration from kuu (vanity or a lack of substance), a Buddhist concept that is quite different from Western philosophy. In Buddhism, dependent origination (the law of conditionality) teaches that no single thing can exist independently of others, and therefore kuu goes beyond identity to become a spiritual awakening. Urabe subtly portrays this traditional Buddhist concept in all his contemporary art works, creating unique pieces that are sure to make this up-and-coming artist someone to look out for in the future.

Shinya Watanabe is an independent curator based in Tokyo and New York. He has Masters in Art from New York University and curates contemporary art exhibitions, mainly focusing on the relationship between art and the nation-state.