The Japanese Experience: Inevitable

by Gregor Jansen, Jun Hasegawa (Artist), hiropon (Artist)

At first sight, it appears brand new, pure Tokyo pop. But The Japanese Inevitable reveals far more than the successful cloning of morphed manga motifs onto stretched canvas and museum walls. It represents eight positions in contemporary Japanese art and scrutinizes their complex visual vocabulary, noting references to Japanese and Western art traditions as frequently as the borrowing of mass culture motifs from the realms of manga and anime . Takashi Murakami's MR. DOB questions the place of contemporary art in our global society; Aya Takano's glowing watercolors combine Japanese sensitivity, issues of female identity, and sci-fi; Masahiko Kuwahara's mutant animals provide shades of softness and mysterious openness, and Yoshitomo Nara's reworking of historical Japanese woodcuts disturbs the floating world. Not only are the artists' visual repertoires new and surprising, but their creative methods and strategies help conquer a public that is mostly untouched by contemporary art. Published in association with the Ursula Blickle Foundation.

Genres: Art, Japan, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 2, 2003

Reviews

[Spencer]

masahiko kuwahara
and all superflat

[Cheng]

takashi murakami creative weapon

[Khanh]

SO COOL

[Alex]

The Japanese Experience: Inevitable (In the Floating World: Slash with a Knife, 1999) by Takashi Murakami (2003)