The contemporary art
in Japan is naturally influenced by the world contemporary art. But the power
of the Japanese traditions, the oppressive presence of a dense urban environment
and the various traumatism undergone by Japan for 60 years (defeat of 1945, Hiroshima,
earthquakes, economic crisis, etc.) involve a production very rich, original and
little known.
Some examples, paintings, sculptures, photographs,
classified very arbitrarily by broad topics: All
the artists
- A modern vision
of the traditional arts of Japan
- A
rather classic geometrical abstraction
-
Land-Art, Minimal-Art
- A
popular art influenced by mangas and vidéos
- The
obsessional presence of the city and the technique
- The
big fears of Japan
- The difficult
search for an identity
The big fears
of Japan
Born in the illusion of a perfect Japan, where
the technique was capable of solving any problem, where the lifetime employment
was the standard and where their country invaded the world with its products,
the japanese recover old fears since last fifteen years.
With the long economic
crisis, the uncertainty reappear.
Tchernobyl woke the fear of the nuclear
and the recollection of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The earthquake of Kobe, very
violent and in a region considered as few exposed, highlighted the relative carelessness
of the Japanese administration.
This country is perfectly democratic, but
the elections do not fascinate the people; it is not the custom to speak about
politics in Japan, neither in family, nor between friends.
The Japanese newspapers
are numerous and very thick, but their contents are very often insipid.
| Tatsumi Orimoto ( b 1945 )
photographer, lives in Kawasaki. The inexorable increase
of the very old population in Japan, its uncertainty and its isolation are illustrated
by this staged photography
 |
Kenji Yanobe ( born in Osaka , 1965 )
The fear of the nuclear threat, the attempts of 1995 using sarin gas in the subway
of Tokyo developed in the population some reflexes of protection
Protective clothes, yellow series
|
Tsuyoshi Ozawa ( b 1965 in Tokyo ) This
installation evokes the precarious condition of the poor Japaneses who live in
social exiguous apartments, looking like kennel where only television seems living
and where the nature is magnificent, but is often only distant background. 
Installation
|
Tadashi Kawamata ( b 1953 in Hokkaïdo )
Sculptor, architect
since 1977
" daily news " Project
Installation of tons of unsold newspapers
|
Ryuji Miyamoto
( b 1947, Tokyo ) He specialized in the photos of buildings
in the course of destruction, industrial fallow lands. He became famous for his
photos of the earthquake of Kobe in January, 1995
He began a series of photos on the underprivileged persons and the homeless persons
of the Japanese cities, who are usually hidden, while respecting their dignity
by showing often only silhouettes.
Kobe, 1995, january 18 |
Born in Osaka,
Febr 23 1935, Tetsumi Kudo studied oil painting at and graduated from the Tokyo
National University of Fine Arts in 1958.
He was first noticed at the Yomiuri
Independents exhibition. In 1962, Kudo emigrated to France and lived there for
the next 25 years. After his return to Japan, Kudo taught at Tokyo Art University
from 1987 until his death in 1990.
His strong concern for the human body,
which he shows through his often grotesque work, bears many implications for modern
society. We should, for example, react to his series which address the issue of
radioactivity and environment.
Died Nov 12 1990, Tokyo.
|
| |
In search of an identity...
Since
their youngest age, the Japanese have a uniform, that of the school, then the
secondary school. Between 18 and 25 years the young people have very colored and
often provocating dresses, but for the greater part, the first employment sounds
the hour of return at the costume/white-shirt/dark-tie of "Salary-man" and in
the strict suit of "Office-lady".
The artists who want to
be famous go either to the provocation, or to the dream, or still in an exaggeration
of the commonness of their environment.
Yayoi Kusama ( born 1928,
Matsumoto ) One of the largest contemporary artists in Japan.
Kusama is also enigmatic – critics have variously ascribed her work to minimalism,
feminism, obsessivism, surrealism, art brut, pop, and abstract expressionism.
Because of fragile mental health, she voluntarily lives at a Tokyo psychiatric
hospital, in a small room, for over 20 years.
Selfportrait with mirror | 
"Girls" cardboard, 2003 | |
Yasumasa Morimura (b. in
Osaka, 1951 ) Lives and works in Osaka. He exposes since 1980
and specialized in the diversion of paints or photos by substituting his face,
nevertheless unsightly, to that of the famous feminine subjects.
His most
recent project is a series of " actresses " where it disguises and makes up to
imitate known actresses. 
Morimura-Marylin ; photography | 
Morimura-Ménines ;
oil on canvas | |
Miwa Yanagi ( Born in 1967, Kobe ) Awarded
a diploma in 1991 of the University of Kyoto's fine art.
The artist turned
to digital image-editing because she could not otherwise create the scenes that
she wanted to see.
She admits spending enormous amount of time to create just
one image.
Minami 2002 ( My Grandmothers series) |
Takanobu Kobayashi (b 1960 ) lives in Tokyo ;
worked in France and in Thaïland. He seeks his identity in the journeys and
the dream. 
Acrylic on canvas |
video
|
Makoto Aïda (
b. in Tokyo, 1965 )
He lives in Tokyo and New York,
provocative artist; he exorcises the daily stress by producing hyperrealistic
videos.
video
Video performanceself-portrait
"I de a "
Kanjis mean "idea of a pretty girl"
| |
Drinking bad sake
( Millenium exposure, Tokyo)
|
 Hara-kiri
of school-girls |
Series " Return
of War": En l'an 3000, les manipulations génétiques
ont permis de créer un animal comestible, succulent et facile à
produire.
Il mesure de 20 cm de long et se présente sous la forme d'une
femme charmante et miniature.
 "No
one knows the title";
mixing of Parthenon and Genbaku dome of Hiroshima |
 Remembers
of World-War II |
Mi-Mi Chan Series:
In the year 3000, a molecular biologist creates MI-MI, a new creature,
very savory and with lovely apparence.
Mi-Mi is served all around the world.
Mi-Mi don't have sense of pain and no fear of death.
Mi-Mi Chan maki-sushi | 
Mi-Mi Chan roasted | |
Kimiko Yoshida ( born 1962 Tokyo ) She
studies photography in Tokyo. She lives and works in France since 1995.
| She draws from the experiment of its childhood the force
of inspiration. She was early in strong opposition with her mother.Since, she
is wandering and fugitive.
her work turns primarily around self-portraits.
In a recent series "Marry me" she is represented as a bride in remembering its
childhood where she invented wedding dresses for her dolls.
Masks Nô | 
Self-portraits | | 
Fragile bride 2003
from series "Mary me" |
|
