Synopses & Reviews
In Japan, the student protests and avant-garde art initiatives of the late 1960s gave way to political apathy, economic uncertainties, and an introspective tendency in art. As a result, many artists sought different avenues of expression, using photography in experimental and conceptual ways as part of their larger artistic practice. Many photographers also responded by moving away from a straight documentary approach, some displaying their images in series and installations as works of art.
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For a New World to Come provides a thought-provoking look at photography-based works and other works by twenty-nine of these artists, including such well-known names as Nobuyoshi Araki, Koji Enokura, Daido Moriyama,and#160;Hitoshi Nomura, and Jiro Takamatau, as well as others who are less familiar but no less important. International scholars discuss their innovative works, many of which have not been published previously outside Japan. They also shed light on the important artistic collectives, photographic journals, and independent exhibition spaces of the era, offering fresh perspectives on this critical period in art and photography in Japan.and#160;
Synopsis
From the time of its invention, photography has enabled artists not only to capture the world around them but also to create worlds of their own.
Utopia/Dystopia investigates how artists from the late 19th century to the present have used photographic fragments or techniques to represent political, social, or cultural states of utopia or dystopia. Artists have employed a number of strategies to this end, such as cutting, fragmenting, and puncturing images as well as reassembling those culled from ready-made materials or giving a subject multiple exposures. The resulting photographs, photocollages, photomontages, and other creations question the validity of seamless pictorial images, and attempt to dismantle the notion of photography as an objective medium.
This publication features approximately forty-five exemplary works by artists such as Herbert Bayer,and#160;John Heartfield, Hannah Hand#246;ch, Arata Isozaki, El Lissitzky, Carter Mull, Land#225;szland#243; Moholy-Nagy, Vik Muniz,and#160;Man Ray, Okanoue Toshiko,and#160;and many others. Also included areand#160;essays thatand#160;offer new ways of thinking about photography's uses and implications.
Synopsis
In this thought-provoking volume, international scholars investigate the experimental photographic practices of 29 Japanese artists during the period of dramatic social, political, and economic changes from 1968 to 1979.
About the Author
Yasufumi Nakamori is associate curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Graham Bader is Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History at Rice University.