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Eastern Tradition, Western Aesthetics
| Article
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16503 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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11 / 1989 |
1,672 Words |
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Robert Kehlmann
Robert Kehlmann is an arts writer residing in Berkeley,
California. |
In any art of a culture there lies an image of that society's beliefs, conflicts, passions, and obsessions. The artistic expression of an era, even if marked by quirky eccentricities, invariably calls attention to a culture's major concerns. Artists have an uncanny way of boldly, and often disturbingly, touching a society's most sensitive nerve endings. The works in the touring exhibition Against Nature: Japanese Art in the Eighties, which features emerging Japanese artists born after World War II, do precisely this. They focus upon Japan's ambivalence toward the influence of Western culture, which has had a powerful impact since the end of the war nearly half a century ago.
The exhibition has many examples of the fine craftsmanship, meticulous design, and versatility in handling a wide range of materials that we in the West have come to associate with the arts of Japan. Yet, while some works do make use of traditional Japanese crafts such as weaving, calligraphy, and wood carving, the individual pieces on the whole express self-conscious irreverence toward their own native culture. Few hints of the inner directed simplicity and austerity of Zen Buddhist and Shinto art are to be found here, in either the subject matter or the highly decorative, colorful surface textures.
Against Nature focuses on urban Japanese artists who have chosen to concentrate on the Westernization of Japan, with its attendant popular culture and technology. (There is no pretense on the part of its curators that the exhibit is in any way a comprehensive survey of contemporary Japanese art.) Some have embraced the invader and use Western imagery, computer technology, and video screens. Others have carefully distanced themselves, exploring their
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