The realism debate and the politics of modern art in early postwar Japan.

This article examines the realism debate (riarizumu ronsō) that took place between 1946 and 1950 as a forum in which ideas on artistic form, the role of the artist in society, and the social relevance of art come into focus in a way that allows us to see how questions such as Japan's modernity, the...

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Published in:Japan Forum Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 508 - 530
Main Author: Jesty, Justin
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Oct2014
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: The realism debate and the politics of modern art in early postwar Japan.
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        au: Jesty, Justin
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        Japan
        Art
        History
        20th century art
        20th century Japanese art
        Modernism (Art)
        Avant-garde (Arts)
        Realism in art
        Japanese history, 1945-1989
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          Art
          History
          Japan
          20th century art
          20th century Japanese art
          Modernism (Art)
          Avant-garde (Arts)
          Realism in art
          Japanese history, 1945-1989
      keyword:
        art history
        avant-garde
        cold war
        contemporary art
        modern art
        modernism
        politics
        postwar
        realism
        art history
        avant-garde
        cold war
        contemporary art
        modern art
        modernism
        politics
        postwar
        realism
      ab: This article examines the realism debate (riarizumu ronsō) that took place between 1946 and 1950 as a forum in which ideas on artistic form, the role of the artist in society, and the social relevance of art come into focus in a way that allows us to see how questions such as Japan's modernity, the recent experience of fascism, and the challenges of rebuilding culture during the early cold war were taken up by leading cultural figures in the field of the visual arts. Occurring alongside discussions of how the art world could be reformed to avoid the failures of fascism, the debate served as an occasion to re-examine the history of modern art in Europe and Japan and to consider the question of artistic representation in a way that opened the most fundamental question of art's relationship to the world and promised to begin the process of envisioning it anew. The debate involved three camps which I label social realism (represented by Hayashi Fumio and Nagai Kiyoshi), modernist realism (Hijikata Tei’ichi), and avant-garde realism (Uemura Takachiyo, Okamoto Tarō, and Hanada Kiyoteru). While assessing their points of agreement and disagreement, I argue that the debate set the stage for debates in the 1950s and beyond.
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      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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