Japan: the New Art

1970 / 27 min. / color
Directed by Michael Blackwood and Christian Blackwood

Gutai, Nobuo Sekine, Ufan Lee, Jiro Takamatsu, Shingo Honda, Susumu Koshimizu, Keiji Yabe, Katsuhiko Narita

Japan: The New Art explores the movements and motivations behind a group of young, ambitious artists striving to build, paint and produce a formerly unseen form of art. The unique aesthetics of the Gutai Group and the Mono-ha, two avant-garde approaches to Contemporary art, show the passionate path to achieving creative liberation. When asked about contemporary Japanese art, Yoshiaki Tono replies, “There is no longer Japanese art, only Japanese artists. In the 1950s one could find Japanese qualities in the work of our abstract painters, but with Pop Art young artists felt liberated from the past and in the reality of the actual world. I am interested in the new generation of artists.” (Yoshiaki Tono) Creating through a lense of anti-academia, conceptualism and illusion, modern Japanese artists such as Nobuo Sekine, Jiro Takaumatsu and Katsuhiko Narita continue to push boundaries and further the conversation surrounding tradition and culture within artistic expression.