Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Influence of Modern Japanese Art: Kimo kawaii and Mono-ha


Both Kimo kawaii and Mono-ha represent a distinctive modern Japanese genre. They either cause a sensation in the world or inspired later artists. Mono-ha is little earlier than Kimo kawaii. Although are very different, they both widely successful and influential in Japan and overseas.

Discussing mono-ha style, it is important to address its outstanding traditions, which are considered to be Japanese art’s “carte-de-visite” even nowadays after more than fifty years ago from the period of its initial origination and florescence. This style of art is also peculiar for its not being affected by the ideas of European, American or any other artists or the other people of art and design, and thus not lacking the originality of Japanese as it can be said about ukiyo-e, literally "pictures of the floating world", for example (Jarves 41). So why are Mono-ha artists so passionate in creating Japanese original art compositions? Most Mono-ha artists were born in 1940s, they all have experience the American culture influence in post-World War II. Since the Meiji restoration, Japanese art was a tagalong of American and European avant-garde art. Mono-ha artists were against blindly following western culture, art and thoughts. They advocate Asian art should find their own unique art form, philosophy and aesthetic (Huang 1).

Mono-ha prevents the influences from western cultures leads the path of modern Japanese art. In 1960s Japan turned to have their own modern art thoughts and art schools instead of accepting and following western art. Even nowadays the address to the themes of mono-ha including sophisticated outlook on space along with seeing interdependent relationships with natural “things”, and the awareness of people’s position in the open space and their relation to everything surrounding them can be found within the ideas of modern art works from Japanese artists and designers; for example a famous Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. His animation talks a lot about the relationship between human and surrounding environment

"Wood" Mono-ha exhibition in Blum and Poe Art Gallery, 2012.


Further more, Mono-ha gains a big attention from the world. The appearance of Mono-ha also influenced other Asian countries’artists to explore a new way of modern art. The world exhibition tour attracts many artists and scholars. Last year, I was invited to see the exhibition at Blum and Poe art gallery, Los Angeles.

In contrast, Kimo kawaii is largely influenced by western art. Yoshitomo Nara as an example, he was influenced by Disney cartoon style and punk rock music. His idea of the works is about thinking of a world where innocence and unruliness went together and a world full of contradiction, cold and warm, kids and adults, realism and fantasy, and all of them are worthy of exploration.

It is worthy to note here that Nara’s mindset and artwork have been adversely influenced by his childhood background of the postwar period. Nara has also made a big contribution in the postwar Japanese art. According to Foil English web site (2), his children and animation that populate his artwork embraces the punk ethos. Nara uses a distinctive style to depict children who are not only cute but also menacing, which have had a profound impact in Japan and the world as a whole. 

For instance, from 1984 up to date, Nara has over forty solo exhibitions worldwide. Some of his exhibitions can be found in Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York City, Stephen Friedman Gallery in London and Blue and Poe in Los Angeles among others (Hoptman 54). His famous A to Z exhibition series and “Graf” attracted a lot of attention from volunteers and curators from all over the world. This art was housed in a series of huts made by the volunteers and later each hut used for sale as a work of his art.

Nara’s works are not only available in galleries and museums but can also be found on skateboards, t-shirts, CD covers and postcards (Rivers 86). He has also collaborated across a wide range of artistic genres. For example, he has designed cover art for Shonen Knife as well as writing for the Banana Yashimoto, and thus he has been able to reach out beyond boundaries of art, with music and literature fans being some of his favorite fans.


In short, these two art genres, Kimo-kawaii and Mono-ha lead modern Japanese art to find a unique, an original and a creative way to continue. 

Nara's "Ato Z" art exhibit




Reference:
Hoptman, Laura. Drawing Now: Eight Propositions. New York: The Museum of Modern
               Art, 2002. Print.
Rivers, Charlotte. CD-Art: Innovation in CD Packaging Design: A RotoVision book.
               Beverly: Rockport Publishers, 2008. Print.

Jarves, James. A Glimpse at the Art of Japan, Japan: Boxerbooks, Inc. Print.
Tatehata, Akira and Alfred Birnbaum. "Mono-ha and Japan's Crisis of the Modern."
               Third Text (September 2002): 223-236. Print. 


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