His Unknown Aspects
Iwata Nakayama
Published by Seibu S.A., Tokyo, 1989, unpaginated (b/w ill.), 22 × 22 cm, Japanese/English
Price: €72

Produced on the occasion of the exhibitions at Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Hyogo, 29 August–15 October, 1989 and Seibu Department Store Ikebukuro, Tokyo, 27 October—15 November, 1989.

Iwata Nakayama (1895-1949) is regarded as a one of the most important contributors to the Shinko Shashin movement. From 1918 he travelled in the the west and was attracted to avant-garde movements and moved in bohemian circles where he met Shimizu Toshi, Man Ray, Fujita Tsuguji, and Enrico Prompolini. These encounters left a deep impression on him and when he returned to Japan in 1927 he energetically set about forming his own vision of ‘pure art photography’. In 1929 he settled in Ashiya (nr. Kobe) and in the following year founded the Ashiya Camera Club with Hanaya Kambei, Korai Seiji, and others. This club became the main driving force of New Photography in Japan. Together with Kimura and Nojima he founded Koga magazine in 1932 that was the most important forum for artistic photography at the time.

*Please note this publication is secondhand and may have some traces of previous ownership.

#1989 #abstractphotography #iwatanakayama #japaneseavantgarde #japanesephotography #photography
Abstract Paintings In Japan 1910–1945
Published by The Japan Association of Art Museums, Tokyo, 1992, 225 pp. (colour & b/w ill.), 25 × 24 cm, Japanese
Price: €42 (Out of stock)

Comprehensive survey of early Japanese abstract painting (and photography). Including Koshiro Onchi, Iwata Nakayama, Saburo Hasegawa, Kiyoshi Koishi, Ryuichi Amano, Ei-Q and many more.

#1992 #abstractphotography #eiq #iwatanakayama #japaneseavantgarde #japanesephotography #kiyoshikoishi #koshiroonchi #painting #ryuichiamano #saburohasegawa
Through the 70s
Murakami Saburō
Published by ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, 2013, 170 pp. hardcover with dust jacket (colour & b/w ill.), 18.2 × 25.8 cm, Japanese/English
Price: €58

Murakami Saburō’s ‘Paper-Breaking’ performances, in which he burst through multiple sheets of kraft paper stretched across wooden frames with a sharp crack, were synonymous with the artist. He performed them on close to 40 occasions, between 1955 and 1994, throughout his artistic career. Murakami said that, in 1955, he was inspired to adopt this approach after his son came crashing through the fusuma (sliding door) of his locked room (where the artist was polishing up a plan for a new work to present in the 1st Gutai Art Exhibition) in a bid to get his father to play with him. From that time on, ‘Paper-Breaking’ became a physical means for him to present and investigate questions related to time and space, chance and inevitability, and the self and others.

With essays by Ikegami Tsukasa and Reiko Tomii.

*Please note this publication is secondhand and has some traces of previous ownership.

#2013 #gutai #japaneseavantgarde #murakamisaburo #performance #reikotomii
A Poet of Colors and Forms
Koshiro Onchi
Published by Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, 1994, 336 pp. (colour & b/w ill.), 15.3 × 21.9 cm, Japanese/English
Price: €62

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Onchi, A Poet of Colors and Forms at the Yokohama Museum of art, October 8 – November 6, 1994.

Koshiro Onchi was the most important figure in the ‘Sosaku Hanga’ movement from 1918 until his death, outstanding as a print artist, photographer, book designer and active as a poet, founder and editor of magazines, an author on the subject of prints, art and literature, a leader and organiser of societies and encourager of other artists.

*Please note this publication is secondhand and has some traces of previous ownership.

#1994 #abstractphotography #japaneseavantgarde #japanesephotography #koshiroonchi
Traces of Light in Modernism
Koshiro Onchi, Osamu Shiihara and Ei-Q
Published by The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1997, 40 pp. (b/w ill.), 21 × 29.7 cm, Japanese/English
Price: €44

Various artistic trends originating in Europe after World War 1, such as Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus in Germany and Surrealism in France, left a strong impression on Japanese art and photography in the Taisho and the early Showa periods. In photography in particular, the Western influence brought a new movement called Shinko Shashin (New Photography) in the early Showa period. This exhibition was an attempt at reexamining the visual expression in the period from the perspective of the photographic work of artists from fields other than photography, focusing on the work of Koshiro Onchi, Osamu Shiihara and Ei-Q.

*Please note this publication is secondhand and has some traces of previous ownership.

#1997 #abstractphotography #eiq #japaneseavantgarde #japanesephotography #koshiroonchi #osamushiihara
1952–1956, Tokyo
On Kawara
Published by Parco Co., Tokyo, 1991, unpaginated, hardcover in slipcase (colour & b/w ill.), 28 × 21.7 cm, Japanese/English
Price: €290

This publication focuses on On Kawara’s previously unstudied five-year stay in Tokyo, where he was part of influential avant-garde art student associations and wrote many pieces of art criticism. His violent and grotesque imagery from this period is in stark contrast to his streamlined conceptual date paintings.

Reproducing the complete Bathroom series (1953–54), Events in a Warehouse (1954), and a number of figurative paintings and drawings executed in Japan. The latter half of this book is a collection of newspaper headlines from 1952 to 1956 in both languages, printed on newsprint.

*Please note this publication is secondhand and has some traces of previous ownership.

#1991 #japaneseavantgarde #onkawara