Japan Art Revolution: The Japanese Avant-Garde, from Angura to Provoke
$59.57
- Hardcover
- 320 pages
- 213 x 272 mm
- ISBN 9780500029107
- English
- 2025
A captivating examination of the avant-garde art scene in Japan in the 1960s and '70s, and the revolutionary Japanese artists who made it a creative force both in the country and around the world.
The 1960s in Japan were a time of profound social change, political unrest, and student protests. The turbulent years of the postwar era inspired an artistic explosion, with the emergence of a revolutionary scene of avant-garde artists who pioneered many disciplines: experimental and erotic photography, “Angura” theater and underground street performances, apocalyptic butoh dance, surreal illustrations, and seminal graphic design.
Taking design cues from Japanese luminaries Yokoo Tadanori and Awazu Kiyoshi, Japan Art Revolution showcases more than six hundred captivating artworks, encompassing photographs, film stills, theater posters, and illustrations by visionary artists including Moriyama Daido, Hosoe Eiko, Araki Nobuyoshi, Ishiuchi Miyako, Tanaami Keiichi, Hijikata Tatsumi, Ohno Kazuo, Terayama Shuji, Tenjo Sajiki, Kawada Kikuji, Neo-Dada Organizers, Hi-Red Center, Hanaga Mitsutoshi, Nakahira Takuma, and Tanabe Santaro, to name a few of the artists featured in this book.
Drawing on extensive interviews with these iconic artists, this comprehensive publication offers readers a nuanced understanding of the thriving world of Japanese avant-garde art, complemented by insightful texts and quotes from esteemed experts, curators, academics, and archivists.
Amélie Ravalec
Author
Amélie Ravalec is a Parisian film director, producer, and colorist. She directed her first documentary, Paris/Berlin: 20 Years of Underground Techno (2012), at the age of sixteen, winning the Festival Pick Award at the Sydney Fringe Festival. She went on to direct multiple films on underground arts, including two documentaries on the Japanese avant-garde. Her films have been shown at cinemas, festivals, museums, and cultural institutions across fifty countries, and acquired by TV networks including ARTE, Sky Arts UK, and ORF Austria.
