Art Geeks
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INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORANEITY Contemporary art has undergone many changes as ideological frameworks have changed, most notably from the traditional Euro-centric Western canon viewpoint to one that encompasses non-Western art as equally important. In general, contemporary art can be understood on the local, culturally specific level of an individual person, city or nation. However, it must also be acknowledged in the context of a global, transnational stage composed of international institutions such as biennials and cyberspace, which join together artists in spite of the traditional limitations of time and space. Thus an artist can be local, at the same time he or she is international, or global. In her essay on “Historicizing ‘Contemporary Art’: Some Discursive Practices in Gendai Bijutsu in Japan,” Reiko Tomii aptly describes the process of understanding the present and recent past, contemporary art, as a ever-changing series of constructions and reconstructions as boundaries are re-evaluated amidst the complexity of understanding this proximate period. Within this pursuit of transnational or transcultural understanding, however, remains the risk, of “glossing over the locally specific that informs individual practices.”1 It is also insufficient to understand this experience of the contemporary as the “external gaze looking at or upon the locale,” but it must be acknowledged that “locales also look out at the world (the global) and at each other.”2 Following the isolation of the United States’ occupation of Japan, artist in the postwar period were able to break free into their own cultural explorations. As the technologies of travel and mass communication improved during the 1960s, greater connections to an international art world were opened up. As the Gutai artists read art magazines and journals from all over the world, discovering like-minded artists such as Pollock, they sent out their own periodical which found other artists. Likewise, Morita Shiryu began his Bokubi journal. From the mid-1950s and onward, Japanese artists regularly participated in regional and international biennales, their work included in thematic exhibitions outside of Japan. Some major Japanese artists also relocated to other major art centers, notably Paris and New York. Many art movements were irrevocably changed by the international dialogue and exchange between artists of varying cultures spanning the globe. It is clear that national histories of art must be re-considered to accounts for the complexity of the transnational movement of peoples, works of art, and media. With the bias of writers on art historical movements, there can emerge certain tendencies to prioritize cultural groups over others, hence, deciding to write about how the Japanese arts were derived from that of the Western (European and American) art movements. While there is evidence of Western stylistic techniques in Japanese art, there can likewise be traced influence of Japanese art in that of Western artists such as in the case of Japonisme or certain trends in abstract expressionism as in artists like Mark Tobey. It is important to critically regard the authority of art historical positioning; it may be more useful to view the developments in Japan and the United States and Europe as art movements and artists in dialogue with one another, sharing ideas and creating individual expressions through the contact with these ideas. The complexity of the postwar period and East-West relations also merits a more thorough and in-depth understanding not possible in this overview investigation, and I encourage you to research further if you are interested. For more detailed information on several aspects of the exhibition I would recommend that you purchase the catalogue Resounding Spirit: Japanese Contemporary Art of the 1960s which contains critical essays by Reiko Tomii and Ming Tiampo who served as curatorial consultants to the exhibition. This catalogue can be purchased at the Carleton University Art Gallery during the exhibition or via the <a href=”http://www.potsdam.edu/content.php?contentID=07C5A847425D8A1E03E01D33A293FE95”>Gibson Gallery</a> (see instructions in red near the top of the page.) While this is a touring exhibition, the presentation of Resounding Spirit at Carleton University Art Gallery was realized in collaboration with a curatorial working group: a small, fourth year Art History class which constituted a think tank to develop the framework of the presentation of the works in the exhibition space. Feel free to check out the exhibition tour podcast and other projects captured on the site for your perusal. Curator: Maggie Price The website content is authored by Valerie Doucette with contribution from Jessica Nagy.
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