The Japanese Experience: Inevitable

At first sight it is brand new, pure Tokyo pop. But the publication “The Japanese Experience: Inevitable” shows far more than the successful cloning of morphed Manga motifs with extensive painting, emphasizing two-dimensionality. It represents eight positions of contemporary Japanese art and scrutinizes their complex visual vocabulary. In proceeding this way, references to Japanese and Western art traditions, seen in the paintings, watercolors, drawings, sculptures, and videos shown here, stand out just as acquisitions of mass culture motifs would, from the realism of Manga (comic) or Anime (animated film), for instance. It is not only the visual repertoire which is new and surprising, but also the creative methods and strategies that are being used by the artists in order to conquer medical picture worlds and/or a public that is untouched, to a large extent, by contemporary art so far. Already, with the juxtaposition of massive space, filling paintings (like “Magic Ball (positive) and “Magic Ball (negative) by Takashi Murakami) with videos, T-shirts, soft toys, skateboards, and other Japanese artist-made “merchandising products” virtually available in the Web, it becomes clear that the deterritorialization of pictures has long since reached a new quality.

Publisher: Ursula Blickle Foundation & Hatje Cantz

Date Published: 2002

Book Condition: Near fine hardcover with illustrated boards showing some minor bumping to spine and corner edges of boards, otherwise a fine unmarked copy internally

ISBN: 3775712542