DOI issue:
Obsah
DOI article:Čapková, Helena: The Japanese Cubist Body - mapping modern experience in the pre-WWII Japanese artistic network
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51716#0138
(1924/79). The original was apparently bought by a
member of the Soviet Embassy who subsequently
took it home to Russia. Against conservative Social
Realism, however, 1930 witnessed what is called the
first Surrealist painting proper to be painted by a
Japanese. Fukuzawa Ichirö was living in Paris when
he sent “Invincible Force” (1930) and around 30
other paintings to be shown at the First Independent
Exhibition in Tokyo. Yabe Tomoe (1892 — 1981), a
Japanese painter trained in Russia in the late 1920s,
was strongly inspired by Soviet art, spent time in
Paris, and helped to found the Proletarian Visual
Arts Movement in Japan.
The break free — a “conscious” independence of
the leading Euroamerican art scene was proclaimed
by a number of artists who set the tone for decades,
including postwar local developments. One of the
strongest voices belonged to the transnationally ex-
perienced artist, political activist and articulator of
“conscious constructivism” concept — Murayama
Tomoyoshi who called upon artists to emancipate
themselves, and leave the picture albums behind
in 1924 at the event of the 2nd Akushon (Action)
exhibition in Tokyo. Back in Japan from Berlin in
early 1923, the arbiter of the European avant-garde
movements, Murayama set about establishing his
own aesthetic through collage/assemblage Works
such as “Construction” (1925), a coagulation of oil
paint on wood, paper, cloth and metal, the technique
of which he had learned abroad. Other works in-
clude “Work Utilizing Flowers and a Shoe” (1923)
in which a woman’s shoe and a glass casing enclos-
ing synthetic flowers were placed inside a box. Such
pièces escaped the two-dimensionality of painting
to become sculptural still lifes.
The Great Kantö Earthquake of 1923 brought
about a proletarian and socialist bent to MAVO ac-
tivities, which included the design and construction
of architectural façades for buildings. But it also
in many ways influenced MAVO’s Creative décliné
and Murayama’s growing penchant for the world of
illustration, indicated by the number of magazine-
cover designs he produced. Ambitions paintings and
sculptures were for the most part behind Murayama
23 Detailed analysis of MAVO in WEISENFELD, G.: Maw:Ja-
panese artists and the avant-garde, 1905 — 1931. Berkeley 2002.
as he focused on his writing and theatre production.
The rising militarism of the early 1930s ruled out a
great deal of expérimentation in the arts, and those
with earlier Communist associations were regardée!
with suspicion by the state.23
Japan and Cubism in the 1930s
This section will be focused on the 1930s and
the reaction towards the cuit exhibition Cubism
and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modem Art in
1936. As Ômuka Toshiharu observed — the reaction
towards the MOMA show was immédiate. Sanami
Hajime published in a magazine Bijutsu (Art) a sé-
riés of articles in reaction to the exhibition in which
he introduced two parallel tendencies: a renewed
interest in avant-garde painting and revived interest
in classical western style Japanese painting — yoga.
Cubism re-entered Japan with a storm and the cata-
logue of the New York was thought to hâve a “vital
study reference”.24 Nevertheless, it took a while for
Alfred H. Barr, Jr.’s catalogue to achieve a lasting
impact on Japanese artists. Even Sanami’s article
was using Charles Edouard Jeanneret (1887 — 1965)
and Amédée Ozenfant’s (1886 —1966) older text on
“Modem painting” (Le Peinture moderne, 1924) as
a reference for content and illustrations rather than
Barr’s new content. Three artists who “listened” to
Barr’s words a year later were Fukuzawa Ichirö (1898
- 1992), Hasekawa Saburô (1906 — 1957) and Ihara
Usaburô (1894 — 1976). They considered Cubism
as a historie concept and used it for their search for
order and method that they urgently sought for in
the troubled Japan of the late 1930s. Ail three artists
referred to the catalogue in articles on abstract or
modem art they published in 1937. Especially Ihara’s
discussion of Cubism in the publication of the same
name shows the disruptive impact of Cubism on
the Japanese art scene. In terms of ideas, Ihara uses
texts published in the Cubist heyday of 1912 and
1913. In his own practice, however, Ihara referred
heavily to Picasso’s Neo-classical painting which in
his mind well bridged the expression of Synthetic
Cubism and a désirable classical mode. In the same
24 OMUKA, T: The Reputation of Cubism in 1930s Japan,
Modernism, Academism and America. In: FURUICHI 2006
(see in note 3), p. 212.
130
member of the Soviet Embassy who subsequently
took it home to Russia. Against conservative Social
Realism, however, 1930 witnessed what is called the
first Surrealist painting proper to be painted by a
Japanese. Fukuzawa Ichirö was living in Paris when
he sent “Invincible Force” (1930) and around 30
other paintings to be shown at the First Independent
Exhibition in Tokyo. Yabe Tomoe (1892 — 1981), a
Japanese painter trained in Russia in the late 1920s,
was strongly inspired by Soviet art, spent time in
Paris, and helped to found the Proletarian Visual
Arts Movement in Japan.
The break free — a “conscious” independence of
the leading Euroamerican art scene was proclaimed
by a number of artists who set the tone for decades,
including postwar local developments. One of the
strongest voices belonged to the transnationally ex-
perienced artist, political activist and articulator of
“conscious constructivism” concept — Murayama
Tomoyoshi who called upon artists to emancipate
themselves, and leave the picture albums behind
in 1924 at the event of the 2nd Akushon (Action)
exhibition in Tokyo. Back in Japan from Berlin in
early 1923, the arbiter of the European avant-garde
movements, Murayama set about establishing his
own aesthetic through collage/assemblage Works
such as “Construction” (1925), a coagulation of oil
paint on wood, paper, cloth and metal, the technique
of which he had learned abroad. Other works in-
clude “Work Utilizing Flowers and a Shoe” (1923)
in which a woman’s shoe and a glass casing enclos-
ing synthetic flowers were placed inside a box. Such
pièces escaped the two-dimensionality of painting
to become sculptural still lifes.
The Great Kantö Earthquake of 1923 brought
about a proletarian and socialist bent to MAVO ac-
tivities, which included the design and construction
of architectural façades for buildings. But it also
in many ways influenced MAVO’s Creative décliné
and Murayama’s growing penchant for the world of
illustration, indicated by the number of magazine-
cover designs he produced. Ambitions paintings and
sculptures were for the most part behind Murayama
23 Detailed analysis of MAVO in WEISENFELD, G.: Maw:Ja-
panese artists and the avant-garde, 1905 — 1931. Berkeley 2002.
as he focused on his writing and theatre production.
The rising militarism of the early 1930s ruled out a
great deal of expérimentation in the arts, and those
with earlier Communist associations were regardée!
with suspicion by the state.23
Japan and Cubism in the 1930s
This section will be focused on the 1930s and
the reaction towards the cuit exhibition Cubism
and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modem Art in
1936. As Ômuka Toshiharu observed — the reaction
towards the MOMA show was immédiate. Sanami
Hajime published in a magazine Bijutsu (Art) a sé-
riés of articles in reaction to the exhibition in which
he introduced two parallel tendencies: a renewed
interest in avant-garde painting and revived interest
in classical western style Japanese painting — yoga.
Cubism re-entered Japan with a storm and the cata-
logue of the New York was thought to hâve a “vital
study reference”.24 Nevertheless, it took a while for
Alfred H. Barr, Jr.’s catalogue to achieve a lasting
impact on Japanese artists. Even Sanami’s article
was using Charles Edouard Jeanneret (1887 — 1965)
and Amédée Ozenfant’s (1886 —1966) older text on
“Modem painting” (Le Peinture moderne, 1924) as
a reference for content and illustrations rather than
Barr’s new content. Three artists who “listened” to
Barr’s words a year later were Fukuzawa Ichirö (1898
- 1992), Hasekawa Saburô (1906 — 1957) and Ihara
Usaburô (1894 — 1976). They considered Cubism
as a historie concept and used it for their search for
order and method that they urgently sought for in
the troubled Japan of the late 1930s. Ail three artists
referred to the catalogue in articles on abstract or
modem art they published in 1937. Especially Ihara’s
discussion of Cubism in the publication of the same
name shows the disruptive impact of Cubism on
the Japanese art scene. In terms of ideas, Ihara uses
texts published in the Cubist heyday of 1912 and
1913. In his own practice, however, Ihara referred
heavily to Picasso’s Neo-classical painting which in
his mind well bridged the expression of Synthetic
Cubism and a désirable classical mode. In the same
24 OMUKA, T: The Reputation of Cubism in 1930s Japan,
Modernism, Academism and America. In: FURUICHI 2006
(see in note 3), p. 212.
130