Avant-Garde Art and Non-Dominant Thought in Postwar Japan: Image, Matter, Separation

This book explores how matter in art history, criticism, and architecture pursued a radical definition of multiplicity against the dominant and hierarchical tendencies in post-fascist Japan. It identifies formal oppositions between cognition and image, self and other, human and thing, and one and many in mediums such as painting, photography, sculpture, and architecture. The author proposes the anthropofugal as an original concept to understand matter in the epistemic universe of the postwar Japanese avant-garde. Chapters offer critical insights into how artists and critics grounded their work in active disengagement to advance an ethics of nondominance.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 30 May 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book offers a fresh perspective on the role of matter in art history, criticism, and architecture during the post-fascist era in Japan. By conducting a theoretical analysis of the works of artists and critics like Okamoto Taro, Hanada Kiyoteru, Kawara On, Isozaki Arata, Kawaguchi Tatsuo, and Nakahira Takuma, this highly illustrated text identifies formal oppositions frequently evoked in the Japanese avant-garde. These oppositions include cognition and image, self and other, human and thing, and one and many, across various mediums such as painting, photography, sculpture, and architecture. In addition to exploring an aesthetics of separation that rejects the integrationist implications of the human, the author proposes the concept of anthropofugal, which means fleeing the human, as an original way to understand matter within the epistemic universe of the postwar Japanese avant-garde.

The chapters in this publication provide critical insights into how artists and critics grounded their work in active disengagement to advance an ethics of nondominance. This book will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese studies, art history, and visual cultures, as well as those interested in exploring the complexities of matter and its relationship to artistic expression in different cultural contexts.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367617967