Contemporary Japanese art scene seems completely globalized. The artists move between Tokyo and New York, almost all received European or American education, and they speak about their work in international art English. However, this picture is far from complete.
National forms and trends turn out to be one of the most sought-after goods that Japan can offer to the world market of artistic ideas and works.
Plane operation. How the superflat movement combines American geek culture and traditional Japanese painting
Takashi Murakami. "Tang Tang Bo"If in the Western world for almost everyone (except perhaps the most ardent theorists of postmodernity) the boundary between high and mass culture still remains relevant, albeit problematic, then in Japan these worlds are completely mixed.
An example of this is Takashi Murakami, who successfully combines exhibitions in the best galleries in the world and streaming production.
Recording of a tour of the Murakami exhibition “There Will Be Gentle Rain”
However, Murakami's relationship with popular culture - and for Japan this is primarily the culture of manga and anime fans (otaku) - is more complicated. Philosopher Hiroki Azuma criticizes the understanding of otaku as an authentic Japanese phenomenon. Otaku consider themselves directly connected to the traditions of the Edo period of the 17th–19th centuries - an era of isolationism and refusal to modernize. Azuma argues that the otaku movement - tied to manga, animation, graphic novels, computer games - could only arise in the context of the post-war American occupation as a result of the import of American culture. The art of Murakami and his followers reinvents otaku using pop art methods and debunks the nationalist myth about the authenticity of this tradition. It represents the “re-Americanization of Japaneseized American culture.”
From an art historical point of view, superflat is closest to early Japanese ukiyo-e painting. The most famous work in this tradition is the print The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai (1823–1831).
For Western modernism, the discovery of Japanese painting was a breakthrough. It allowed us to see the picture as a plane and strives not to overcome this feature of it, but to work with it.
Katsushiki Hokusai. "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" Pioneers of performance art. What Japanese Art of the 1950s Means Today
Documenting the creative process of Akira Kanayama and Kazuo Shiraga
Superflat only took shape in the 2000s. But artistic events that were significant for world art began in Japan much earlier - and even earlier than in the West.
The performative turn in art occurred at the turn of the 60s and 70s of the last century. In Japan, performance art appeared in the fifties.
For the first time, the Gutai Group shifted its focus from creating self-sufficient objects to the process of producing them. From here it is one step away from abandoning the art object in favor of an ephemeral event.
Although individual artists from Gutai (there were 59 of them in total over twenty years) actively existed in the international context, understanding how they collective activity Japanese post-war art generally began in the West quite recently. The boom came in 2013: several exhibitions in small galleries in New York and Los Angeles, “Tokyo 1955–1970: the new avant-garde” at MoMA and a large-scale historical retrospective“Gutai: Splendid Playground” at the Guggenheim Museum. Moscow's import of Japanese art seems to be an almost belated continuation of this trend.
Sadamasa Motonaga. Work (Water) at the Guggenheim Museum It's amazing how contemporary these retrospective exhibitions look. For example, the central object of the exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum is a reconstruction of Work (Water) by Sadamasa Motonaga, in which the levels of the museum rotunda are connected by polyethylene tubes with colored water. They resemble brush strokes that have been torn from the canvas, and exemplify Gutai's central focus on "concreteness" (as the band's name translates from Japanese), the materiality of the objects with which the artist works.
Many Gutai participants received an education related to classical nihonga painting, many are biographically tied to the religious context of Zen Buddhism, to its characteristic Japanese calligraphy. All of them found a new, procedural or participatory approach to ancient traditions. Kazuo Shiraga recorded videos of himself painting his monochromes, anticipating Rauschenberg, with his feet, and even created paintings in public.
Minoru Yoshida transformed flowers from Japanese prints into psychedelic objects - an example of this is Bisexual Flower, one of the first kinetic (moving) sculptures in the world.
The curators of the exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum talk about the political significance of these works:
“Gutai demonstrated the importance of free individual action, the subversion of spectatorial expectations, and even stupidity as ways to counter the social passivity and conformity that, over several decades, allowed a militaristic government to gain a critical mass of influence, invade China, and then join World War II.”
Good and wise. Why did artists leave Japan for America in the 1960s?
Gutai was the exception to the rule in post-war Japan. Avant-garde groups remained marginal, the art world was strictly hierarchical. The main path to recognition was participation in competitions held by recognized associations of classical artists. Therefore, many preferred to go to the West and integrate into the English-language art system.
It was especially difficult for women. Even in the progressive Gutai, the share of their presence did not reach even a fifth. What can we say about traditional institutions, for access to which it was necessary special education. By the sixties, girls had already acquired the right to it, but training in art (if it was not about decorative art, which was part of the skill set) ryosai kenbo- a good wife and wise mother) was a socially disapproved activity.
Yoko Ono. Cut Piece
The story of the emigration of five powerful Japanese artists from Tokyo to the States became the topic of Midori Yoshimoto’s study “Into Performance: Japanese Women Artists in New York.” Yayoi Kusama, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi and Shigeko Kubota decided to move to New York at the start of their careers and worked there, including on modernizing the traditions of Japanese art. Only Yoko Ono grew up in the United States - but she, too, deliberately refused to return to Japan, having become disillusioned with the artistic hierarchy of Tokyo during a short stay in 1962-1964.
Ono became the most famous of these five - not only as the wife of John Lennon, but also as the author of proto-feminist performances dedicated to objectification female body. There are obvious parallels between Ono’s Cut Piece, in which viewers could cut off pieces of the artist’s clothing, and “Rhythm 0” by the “grandmother of performance” Marina Abramović.
On short legs. How to take Tadashi Suzuki's original acting training
In the case of Ono and Gutai, the methods and themes of their work, separated from the authors, became internationally significant. There are other forms of export - when the artist’s work is received with interest on the international stage, but the method itself is not borrowed due to its specificity. The most striking case is the acting training system of Tadashi Suzuki.
The Suzuki Theater is loved even in Russia - and this is not surprising. Last time he visited us in 2016 with the play “The Trojan Women” based on the texts of Euripides, and in the 2000s he came several times with productions of Shakespeare and Chekhov. Suzuki transferred the action of the plays to the current Japanese context and offered non-obvious interpretations of the texts: he discovered anti-Semitism in Ivanov and compared it with the disdainful attitude of the Japanese towards the Chinese, and transferred the action of King Lear to a Japanese madhouse.
Suzuki built his system in opposition to the Russian one theater school. IN late XIX century, during the so-called Meiji period, a modernizing imperial Japan experienced a rise in opposition movements. The result was a large-scale Westernization of a previously extremely closed culture. Among the imported forms was the Stanislavsky system, which still remains one of the main directing methods in Japan (and in Russia).
Suzuki exercises
In the sixties, when Suzuki began his career, the thesis was increasingly spreading that, due to their physical characteristics, Japanese actors could not get used to the roles from Western texts that filled the then repertoire. The young director managed to offer the most convincing alternative.
Suzuki's system of exercises, called the grammar of the legs, includes dozens of ways to sit, even more to stand and walk.
His actors usually play barefoot and, due to the lowering of the center of gravity, appear as heavy as possible, tied to the ground. Suzuki teaches them and foreign performers his technique in the village of Toga, in ancient Japanese houses filled with modern equipment. His troupe gives only about 70 performances a year, and the rest of the time they live, almost never leaving the village and having no time for personal matters - only work.
The center in Toga appeared in the seventies, it was designed at the request of the director of the world famous architect Arata Isozaka. Suzuki's system might seem patriarchal and conservative, but he himself talks about Toga in modern terms of decentralization. Back in the mid-2000s, Suzuki understood the importance of exporting art from the capital to the regions and organizing local production points. According to the director, Japan's theater map is in many ways similar to Russia's - the arts are concentrated in Tokyo and several smaller centers. Russian theater It would also be nice to have a company that regularly goes on tour to small towns and is based far from the capital.
SCOT Company Center in Toga Flower paths. What resource has modern theater discovered in the noh and kabuki systems?
The Suzuki method grows out of two ancient Japanese traditions - Kabuki. It's not just that these types of theater are often characterized as walking art, but also the more obvious details. Suzuki often follows the rule that all roles are played by men, using characteristic spatial solutions, for example, hanamichi (“path of flowers”) of the kabuki pattern - a platform extending from the stage to the back auditorium. He also uses very recognizable symbols like flowers and scrolls.
Of course, in global world There is no talk about the privilege of the Japanese to use their national forms.
The theater of one of the most significant directors of our time, the American Robert Wilson, was built on borrowings from it.
He not only uses masks and makeup that remind the mass audience of Japan, but also borrows methods of acting based on maximum slow motion and self-sufficient expressiveness of gesture. Combining traditional and ritualistic forms with cutting-edge lighting scores and minimalist music (one of Wilson's most famous works is the production of Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach), Wilson essentially produces the synthesis of origins and relevance that much contemporary art strives for.
Robert Wilson. "Einstein on the Beach"
From noh and kabuki grew one of the pillars of modern dance - butoh, literally translated - the dance of darkness. Created in 1959 by choreographers Kazuo Ono and Tatsumi Hijikata, who also relied on a low center of gravity and concentration on the legs, butoh represented the translation of reflections on traumatic war experiences into the physical dimension.
“They showed a body that was sick, decaying, even monstrous, monstrous.<…>The movements are sometimes slow, sometimes deliberately sharp, explosive. For this, a special technique is used, when the movement is carried out as if without using the main muscles, due to the bone levers of the skeleton,” dance historian Irina Sirotkina writes butoh into the history of the liberation of the body, connecting it with the departure from ballet normativity. She compares butoh with the practices of dancers and choreographers of the early 20th century - Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Mary Wigman, and talks about the influence on later “postmodern” dance.
A fragment of a dance by Katsura Kan, a modern successor to the butoh tradition
Today, butoh in its original form is no longer an avant-garde practice, but a historical reconstruction.
However, the vocabulary of movement developed by Ono, Hijikata and their followers remains a valuable resource for modern choreographers. In the West, it is used by Dimitris Papaioannou, Anton Adasinsky and even in the video for “Belong To The World” by The Weekend. In Japan, the continuer of the butoh tradition is, for example, Saburo Teshigawara, who will come to Russia in October. Although he himself denies any parallels with the dance of darkness, critics find quite recognizable signs: a seemingly boneless body, fragility, and silent steps. True, they are already placed in the context of postmodern choreography - with its high tempo, jogging, work with post-industrial noise music.
Saburo Teshigawara. Metamorphosis
Locally global. How is contemporary Japanese art similar to Western art?
The works of Teshigawara and many of his colleagues fit seamlessly into the programs of the best Western contemporary dance festivals. If you quickly look at the descriptions of performances and performances that were shown at Festival/Tokyo - the largest annual show of Japanese theater, it will be difficult to notice fundamental differences from European trends.
One of the central themes is site-specificity - Japanese artists explore the spaces of Tokyo ranging from clumps of capitalism in the form of skyscrapers to marginal areas of otaku concentration.
Another topic is the elaboration of intergenerational misunderstanding, theater as a place of live meeting and organized communication of people different ages. Projects dedicated to her by Toshiki Okada and Akira Tanayama were brought to Vienna for several years in a row to one of the key European festivals of performative arts. By the end of the 2000s, there was nothing new in bringing documentary materials and personal stories to the stage, but the curator of the Vienna Festival presented these projects to the public as an opportunity for live, targeted contact with another culture.
Another main line is working through traumatic experiences. For the Japanese, it is associated not with the Gulag or the Holocaust, but with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The theater refers to it constantly, but the most powerful statement about atomic explosions as the moment of genesis of all modern Japanese culture still belongs to Takashi Murakami.
for the exhibition “Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture” “Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture” is the title of his curatorial project, shown in New York in 2005. “Little Boy” - “baby” in Russian - is the name of one of the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. Collecting hundreds of manga comics from leading illustrators, distinctive vintage toys, and souvenirs based on famous anime - from Godzilla to Hello Kitty, Murakami inflated the concentration of cute - kawaii - in the museum space to the limit. At the same time, he launched a selection of animations in which central images There were pictures of explosions, bare earth, destroyed cities.
This contrast became the first large-scale statement about the infantilization of Japanese culture as a way to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Now this conclusion seems obvious. Inuhiko Yomota's academic research on kawaii is based on it.
There are also later traumatic triggers. The most important are the events of March 11, 2011, the earthquake and tsunami that led to a major accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. At Festival/Tokyo-2018 whole program of the six performances was dedicated to understanding the consequences of a natural and technological disaster; they also became the theme for one of the works presented at Solyanka. This example clearly shows that the arsenal of critical methods in Western and Japanese art is not fundamentally different. Haruyuki Ishii creates an installation of three televisions that play high-tempo, looped footage from television programs about the earthquake on a loop.
“The work is made up of 111 videos that the artist watched daily on the news until the moment when everything he saw began to be perceived as fiction,” the curators explain. "New Japan" is a striking example of how art does not resist interpretation based on national myths, but at the same time a critical eye reveals that the same interpretation could be relevant to art of any origin. The curators discuss contemplation as the basis of Japanese tradition, drawing on quotes from Lao Tzu. At the same time, as if leaving behind brackets, almost all contemporary art is focused on the “observer effect” (that’s the name of the exhibition) - be it in the form of creating new contexts for the perception of familiar phenomena or in raising the question of the possibility of adequate perception as such.
Imagined Communities is another work by video artist Haruyuki Ishii
Game
However, one should not think that Japan in the 2010s represents a concentration of progressiveness.
The habits of good old traditionalism and love for Orientalist exoticism have not yet been overcome. “Theater of Virgins” is the title of a rather admiring article about the Japanese Takarazuka Theater in the Russian conservative magazine PTZh. "Takarazuka" appeared at the end of the 19th century as a business project to attract tourists to the remote city of the same name, which accidentally became the final station of a private railway. They only play in the theater unmarried girls, which, according to the railroad owner’s plan, were supposed to lure male spectators to the city. Today Takarazuka operates like an industry - with its own TV channel, dense concert program, even the local amusement park. But only unmarried girls still have the right to be in the troupe - let's hope, at least they don't check their virginity.
However, Takarazuka pales in comparison to the Toji Deluxe club in Kyoto, which the Japanese also call a theater. They show absolutely wild things, judging by description New Yorker columnist Ian Buruma, striptease show: several undressed girls on stage turn the display of genitals into a public ritual.
Like many artistic practices, this show is based on ancient legends (with the help of a candle and a magnifying glass, men from the audience could take turns exploring the “secrets of the mother goddess Amaterasu”), and the author himself was reminded of the Noh tradition.
We’ll leave the search for Western analogues for “Takarazuki” and Toji to the reader - it’s not difficult to find them. Let us only note that it is precisely to combat such practices of oppression that a significant part of contemporary art is aimed - both Western and Japanese, ranging from superflat to butoh dance.
Which covers many techniques and styles. Throughout the history of its existence, it has undergone large number changes. New traditions and genres were added, and the original Japanese principles remained. Along with amazing story Japanese painting is also ready to present many unique and interesting facts.
Ancient Japan
The first styles appear in the most ancient historical period countries, even BC. e. Then art was quite primitive. First, in 300 BC. e., various geometric shapes, which were performed on pottery using sticks. Such a discovery by archaeologists as ornamentation on bronze bells dates back to a later time.
A little later, already in 300 AD. e., appear rock paintings, which are much more diverse than geometric patterns. These are already full-fledged images with images. They were found inside crypts, and, probably, the people who are painted on them were buried in these burial grounds.
In the 7th century AD e. Japan adopts writing that comes from China. Around the same time, the first paintings came from there. Then painting appears as a separate sphere of art.
Edo
Edo is far from the first and not the last painting, but it brought a lot of new things to culture. Firstly, it is the brightness and colorfulness that were added to the usual technique, performed in black and gray tones. Most an outstanding artist This style is considered Sotasu. He created classic paintings, but his characters were very colorful. Later he switched to nature, and most of his landscapes were painted against gilded backgrounds.
Secondly, during the Edo period, exoticism, the namban genre, appeared. It used modern European and Chinese techniques that were intertwined with traditional Japanese styles.
And thirdly, the Nanga school appears. In it, artists first completely imitate or even copy the works of Chinese masters. Then a new branch appears, which is called bunjing.
Modernization period
The Edo period gives way to Meiji, and now Japanese painting is forced to enter a new stage of development. At this time, genres such as the Western and the like were becoming popular around the world, so the modernization of art became a common state of affairs. However, in Japan, a country where all people revere traditions, at this time the state of affairs was significantly different from what happened in other countries. Competition between European and local technicians is fierce here.
The government at this stage gives preference to young artists who show great promise of improving their skills in Western styles. So they send them to schools in Europe and America.
But this was only at the beginning of the period. The point is that famous critics Western art was criticized quite strongly. To avoid a big stir around this issue, European styles and techniques began to be banned at exhibitions, their display ceased, as did their popularity.
The emergence of European styles
Next comes the Taisho period. At this time, young artists who left to study in foreign schools come back to their homeland. Naturally, they bring with them new styles of Japanese painting, which are very similar to European ones. Impressionism and post-impressionism appear.
At this stage, many schools are being formed in which ancient Japanese styles are being revived. But it is impossible to completely get rid of Western tendencies. Therefore, we have to combine several techniques in order to please both lovers of the classics and fans of modern European painting.
Some schools are funded by the state, thanks to which it is possible to preserve many of the national traditions. Private owners are forced to follow the lead of consumers who wanted something new; they are tired of the classics.
Painting from the Second World War
After the onset of wartime, Japanese painting remained aloof from events for some time. It developed separately and independently. But this couldn't go on forever.
Over time, when the political situation in the country becomes worse, high and respected figures attract many artists. Some of them began to create in patriotic styles even at the beginning of the war. The rest begin this process only on orders from the authorities.
Accordingly, Japanese fine art was unable to develop particularly during the Second World War. Therefore, for painting it can be called stagnant.
Eternal Suibokuga
Japanese sumi-e painting, or suibokuga, literally means “ink painting.” This determines the style and technique of this art. It came from China, but the Japanese decided to call it their own. And initially the technique did not have any aesthetic side. It was used by monks for self-improvement while studying Zen. Moreover, they first drew pictures and subsequently trained their concentration while viewing them. The monks believed that strict lines, blurry tones and shadows - all that is called monochrome - help to improve.
Japanese ink painting, despite the wide variety of paintings and techniques, is not as complex as it might seem at first glance. It is based on only 4 plots:
- Chrysanthemum.
- Orchid.
- Plum branch.
- Bamboo.
A small number of plots does not make mastering the technique quick. Some masters believe that learning lasts a lifetime.
Despite the fact that sumi-e appeared a long time ago, it is always in demand. Moreover, today you can meet masters of this school not only in Japan, it is widespread far beyond its borders.
Modern period
After the end of the Second World War, art in Japan flourished only in large cities; villagers and villagers had enough to worry about. For the most part, artists tried to turn away from the losses of wartime and depict modern life on canvas. city life with all its embellishments and features. European and American ideas were successfully adopted, but this state of affairs did not last long. Many masters began to gradually move away from them towards Japanese schools.
Always remained fashionable. Therefore, modern Japanese painting can differ only in the technique of execution or the materials used in the process. But most artists do not perceive various innovations well.
It is impossible not to mention the fashionable modern subcultures, such as anime and similar styles. Many artists try to blur the line between the classics and what is in demand today. For the most part, this state of affairs is due to commerce. Classics and traditional genres are practically not bought, therefore, it is unprofitable to work as an artist in your favorite genre, you need to adapt to fashion.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, Japanese painting is a treasure trove fine arts. Perhaps, the country in question was the only one that did not follow Western trends and did not adapt to fashion. Despite many blows during the advent of new techniques, Japanese artists were still able to defend national traditions in many genres. This is probably why paintings made in classical styles are highly valued at exhibitions today.
What are anime and manga? The simplest definition looks like this:
Manga are Japanese comics.
Anime is Japanese animation.
It is often believed that the terms “manga” and “anime” are limited to certain genres (science fiction, fantasy) and graphic styles (realism, “big eyes”). This is wrong. The terms "manga" and "anime" define only the basic culture on which the corresponding works are created.
There is no other country in the world where such attention is paid to comics and animation. The creators of popular Japanese comics are very wealthy people (Takahashi Rumikom is one of the richest women in Japan), the most famous of them are national celebrities; manga makes up about a quarter of all printed matter produced in Japan and is read regardless of age and gender. The position of anime is somewhat more modest, but also quite enviable. Let's say, there is not a single country in the world in which voice actors for animation (seiyuu) enjoy such recognition, respect and love. Japan is the only country in the world to nominate a feature-length animated film for the Oscar for “Best Foreign Film.”
Among other things, anime and manga are a great way to appreciate not only how modern Japanese reflect and experience their ancestral traditions, but also how Japanese works reflect the motifs and plots of other peoples. And it is by no means a fact that the first is always more interesting than the second. You need to know very well Japanese and literary theory to truly understand how Japanese versification (and the Japanese mentality) differs from European ones. And to understand how Japanese elves differ from Tolkien’s elves, it’s enough to watch one or two TV series.
Thus, anime and manga are a kind of “back door” into the world of Japanese consciousness. And by going through this passage, you can not only shorten the path without having to wade through all the fences and bastions erected by the one and a half thousand years of “high culture” of Japan (the art of anime and manga is much younger, and there are fewer traditions in it), but also get a lot of pleasure. Combining business with pleasure - what could be better?
Now a few specific notes about manga and anime separately.
Manga
"Picture stories" have been known in Japan since the very beginning of its cultural history. Even in kofun mounds (tombs of ancient rulers), archaeologists find drawings that are somewhat reminiscent of comic books in ideology and structure.
The spread of “picture stories” has always been facilitated by the complexity and ambiguity of Japanese writing. Even now, Japanese children can read “adult” books and newspapers only after finishing primary school(at 12 years old!). Almost immediately after the appearance of Japanese prose, its illustrated retellings appeared, in which there was little text, and the main role was played by illustrations.
The first Japanese comics are considered to be “Funny Pictures from the Life of Animals,” created in the 12th century by the Buddhist priest and artist Kakuyu (another name is Toba, years of life - 1053-1140). These are four paper scrolls depicting a sequence of black and white ink-drawn pictures with captions. The pictures told of animals representing people, and of Buddhist monks violating the rules. Now these scrolls are considered a sacred relic and are kept in the monastery where the ascetic Kakuyu lived.
Over the almost thousand years of its history, “stories in pictures” have looked and been called differently. The word "manga" (literally "strange (or funny) pictures, grotesques") was coined by the famous graphic artist Katsushika Hokusai in 1814, and although the artist himself used it for a series of "life" drawings, the term stuck to refer to comic books.
European caricature and American comics, which became famous in Japan in the second half of the 19th century, had a huge influence on the development of manga. The first half of the 20th century was the time of searching for the place of comics in the system of Japanese culture of modern times. The militaristic government played a big role here, using mass culture to influence the population. The military financed “correct” manga (it even began to appear in color for a short time) and banned manga with political criticism, forcing former cartoonists to master adventure and fantasy plots (for example, the idea of a “giant robot” first appeared in the 1943 revenge manga, in which such a robot smashed the hated USA). Finally, in the post-war period, the great Tezuka Osamu, with his works, made a real revolution in the world of manga and, together with his students and followers, made manga the main direction of mass culture.
Manga is almost always black and white; only covers and individual illustrations are drawn in color. Most manga are serialized series, published in newspapers or (more often) weekly or monthly magazines. The usual serving size for a series in a weekly magazine is 15-20 pages. The manga, popular among readers, is republished in the form of separate volumes - tankobons. There are, of course, short manga stories, and manga immediately published in the form of tankobon.
There are many manga magazines in Japan. Each of them is aimed at a specific audience, say, younger teenage boys interested in fantasy, or older teenage girls interested in ballet. The strongest differences are between women and men's magazines. The audience for such magazines ranges from children (for whom manga is printed without captions) to middle-aged men and women. There are already experiments in the field of manga for the elderly. Of course, this diversity of audiences has given rise to a whole host of styles and genres: from symbolism to photorealism and from fairy tales to philosophical works and school textbooks.
The creator of a manga is called a "mangaka". Usually one person (often with apprentice assistants) both draws a comic and writes texts, but group creativity also occurs. However, it is not common for more than three or four people to work on a single manga. This increases artistic integrity, and personal income grows. In addition to professional manga, there is also amateur manga - “doujinshi”. Many manga artists started out as creators of doujinshi ("doujinshika"). In large cities there are special markets where doujinshi sell their products and sometimes find serious publishers for their works.
Anime
The term "anime" only became established in the mid-1970s; before that, people usually said "manga-eiga" ("movie comics"). The Japanese began their first experiments with animation in the mid-1910s, and the first anime appeared in 1917. For quite a long time, anime was on the margins of cinema, but here, too, the militarists played a beneficial role, supporting any “correct” art. Thus, the first two major anime films were released in 1943 and 1945, respectively, and were “game” propaganda glorifying the power of the Japanese army. As with manga, decisive role in the history of anime, he played Tezuka Osamu, who suggested abandoning the meaningless competition with full-length films Walt Disney and move on to creating TV series that are superior to American ones not in image quality, but in attractiveness to Japanese audiences.
Most anime are TV series and series produced for sale on video (OAV series). However, there are also many TV films and full-length anime. In terms of diversity of styles, genres and audiences, manga is significantly superior to anime, but the latter is catching up with its competitor every year. On the other hand, many anime are adaptations of popular manga, and they do not compete, but support commercially each other. However, most anime is for children and teenagers, although there is also anime for young people. Middle-aged audiences are being captured by “family anime,” which children watch with their parents. Seriality dictates its own laws - anime creators are less inclined to technical experiments than animators in other countries, but they pay a lot of attention to creating attractive and interesting images characters (hence the importance of quality voice acting) and plot development. Designers in anime are more important than animators.
Anime is created by anime studios, usually relatively small and working with external funding from various sponsors (TV channels, toy corporations, manga publishers). Typically, such studios arise around a few outstanding creators, and therefore the studio often has a certain “studio style” that is set by leading designers.
Since November 16, 2013, the Hermitage has opened the exhibition “Mono no aware. The charm of things. Contemporary art Japan". The exhibition, located in the building of the Eastern Wing of the General Staff, was prepared by the State Hermitage with the support of the Japanese Embassy in Russia, presents installations, sculpture, video art, photographs created over the past few years by Japanese artists and designed to fill new page in the centuries-old history of art of the Country rising sun. Their names, known in their homeland, are still practically unknown to the Russian and European public: Kanauji Teppei, Kengo Kito, Kuvakubo Ryota, Masaya Chiba, Motoi Yamamoto, Onishi Yasuaki, Rieko Shiga, Suda Yoshihiro, Shinishiro Kano, Hiroaki Morita, Hiraki Sawa and others .
Existing since the 10th century, the term "mono no aware" can be translated as "the charm of a thing" or "delight in a thing", and is associated with the Buddhist idea of \u200b\u200bthe ephemerality and futility of existence. The material and spiritual objects surrounding a person are fraught with a unique, fleeting charm (avare) characteristic only of him. A person - and above all an artist - must have a responsive heart in order to find and feel this charm, to respond to it internally. Contemporary artists have a keen sense of materials in which the inner simplicity of meaning shines. Deliberately limiting themselves to certain themes and motifs, they use ancient Japanese artistic techniques in a new way.
In Japan, as in Russia, contemporary art is a phenomenon brought from outside, from the West, which is not always understandable and causes rejection. Both cultures accepted the Anglo-American term contemporary art as a symbol of newfangled cultural borrowings. In Japan in the 1970s, as in Russia in the 1990s, artists felt like outsiders. They went to work in the West, but still in Japan in the 1970s the words “contemporary art” sounded positive, allowing to the younger generation forget the definition of "post-war art", associated with tragedy and decline.
The true flowering of modern art in the Western sense came only towards the end of the 1980s, when galleries opened not only in Ginza, but also in other areas of Tokyo. In 1989, the first museum of modern art was created in Hiroshima, and Tokyo museums soon followed in the 1990s. Since that time, gradual recognition of the phenomenon of contemporary art at the national level and its entry into cultural everyday life began. The next step was the holding of national biennales and triennials.
In the era of total dominance of media technologies Japanese artists concentrate their attention on native materials, on their touch, on listening to them. The installations at the exhibition are of great interest, including the work of Ryota Kuwakubo (b. 1971), simple in design, but complex in operation, where main role shadow plays. The artist outlines objects and creates an amazing moving kaleidoscope. Kaneuji Teppei (b. 1978) presents unexpected designs from everyday household materials. The objects he collected, which have different color and purpose, develop into bizarre forms that turn into either modernist sculptures or snowy landscapes from Japanese paintings on silk.
“Material selections” in video works and in the “found object” genre are made by Hiroaki Morita (b. 1973), and in painting by Shinishiro Kano (b. 1982) and Masaya Chiba (b. 1980). The potential of the very prosaic “material selections” compiled by the artists goes back to the spiritualization of everything and everyone, traditional for Buddhism with its idea that in every creature and in every object - from a person to a tiny blade of grass - lies the nature of the Buddha. They also pay attention to inner essence things perceived as beauty and charm.
The installation by Kengo Kito (b. 1977), made up of hoops, is both sculpture and big picture with disconnected planes, elementary colors and perspective. The space in it turns into planes before our eyes, which makes it possible to endlessly copy all these signs and symbols of art that have lost their connection to reality.
Yasuaki Onishi (b. 1979) and Motoi Yamamoto (b. 1966) work with space somewhat differently in their installations. As if to unite all these different approaches with captivating simplicity, Yoshihiro Suda (b. 1969) initiates a minimal intrusion into the exhibition space by discreetly placing wooden plants that look like real ones.
The exhibition "Mono no aware. The charm of things. Contemporary art of Japan" was prepared by the Department of Contemporary Art as part of the Hermitage 20/21 project. According to M. B. Piotrovsky, general director State Hermitage: “The objectives of the project are to collect, exhibit, and study the art of the 20th-21st centuries. “Hermitage 20/21” is addressed to those who want to keep up with the times - amateurs and professionals, sophisticated connoisseurs and the youngest viewers.”
The curators of the exhibition are Dmitry Yurievich Ozerkov, head of the Department of Contemporary Art of the State Hermitage, Candidate of Philosophy and Ekaterina Vladimirovna Lopatkina, deputy head of the Department of Contemporary Art. Scientific consultant of the exhibition - Anna Vasilyevna Savelyeva, researcher Department of the East of the State Hermitage. An illustrated brochure has been prepared for the exhibition, the author of the text is D.Yu. Ozerkov.
Japanese art occupies an important place in the collection of the State Hermitage and numbers about 10,000 works: the museum stores 1,500 sheets of color woodcuts, including works by famous masters of Japanese engraving from the mid-18th to 20th centuries; collection of porcelain and ceramics (more than 2000 exhibits); varnishes of the 16th-20th centuries; fabric and costume samples. The most valuable part of the Hermitage's collection of Japanese art is the collection of netsuke - miniature sculpture of the 17th-19th centuries, numbering more than 1000 works.
The Hermitage is hosting an interesting exhibition - Contemporary Art of Japan "MONO-NO AWARE. The Charm of Things."
I cannot say that I am a fan of contemporary art. I like it better when there is something to look at (busy graphics, or decorative arts, ethnicity - that’s my everything). Admiring the beauty of a pure concept is not always fun for me. (Malevich, sorry! I don’t like the black square!)
But today I got to this exhibition!
Dear ones, if you are in St. Petersburg, interested in art and have not been there yet, then the exhibition will be on until February 9th! Go, it's interesting!
I am not very convinced by the concepts, as I wrote above. I somehow thought that in a year of visiting contemporary exhibitions, at most one or two objects seem funny to me. And many things don’t touch me so much that I feel sorry for the time I spent. But this is in any genre, in any art, the percentage of talent and mediocrity, well if it is one in ten! But I liked this exhibition.
Japanese creations were displayed in the exhibition halls of the General Staff Building. The first installation that greets visitors is an incredibly large labyrinth sprinkled with salt on the floor. Gray floor, white salt, incredibly neatly marked space, woven into one field. Big exhibition hall, and a white ornament spreading across the floor like some kind of amazing loach. Moreover, you understand how temporary this art is. The exhibition will close, the labyrinth will be swept away with a broom. I once watched a movie, "Little Buddha". And there, at the beginning, a Buddhist monk laid out a complex ornament from colored sand. And at the end of the film, the monk made a sharp movement with his brush and the titanic work scattered to the wind. It was there, then it was a hop, and then it wasn’t. And this says, appreciate the beauty here and now, everything is fleeting. So this labyrinth of salt, it enters into dialogue with you, you begin to answer the questions it poses to you. Artist - Motoi Yamamoto.
Yes - yes! This is such a big labyrinth, can you feel the scale?
The second object that captivates is the huge dome made of polyethylene and black resin by Yasuaki Onishi. The space has been designed in an unusual way. Hanging, slightly moving, on black, thin, uneven threads of resin is a dome... or a mountain with complex terrain. When you go inside, you see a motley pattern of dots - places where the resin sticks. It’s funny, as if black rain is falling silently, and you are under the canopy.
How did you come up with this technique? Funny, right? But in real life it looks “more alive”, the dome sways slightly from the breeze created by passing visitors. And there is a feeling of your interaction with the object. You can go “into the cave” and see what it’s like from the inside!
But to avoid the impression that everything was only black and white, I’ll post here a couple more photographs of the composition made from hoops connected together. Such colored funny plastic curls! And also, you can walk through this room, inside the hoops, or you can look at everything from the outside.
I liked these objects the most. Of course, soon conceptual contemporary art will become different, in tune with the new time. It will not return to the old way, and will not remain as it is now. It will change. But in order to understand what happened, where the flow was rushing and what and where it comes from, you need to know what is happening now. And don’t shy away from the fact that nooo, the concept is not for me, but try to see it and appreciate it. There are few talents, as always, but they exist. And if the exhibits resonate, then all is not lost!!!