TOKYO 1955-1970

Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde explores theextraordinary convergence of artists and other creators in Japan'scapital city during the radically transformative postwar period.Examining works from a range of media--painting, sculpture,photography, drawing, printmaking, video and film, as well asgraphic design, architecture, musical composition and dance--thisis the first publication in English to focus in depth on the fullscope of postwar art in Japan. During this period, Tokyo was avibrant hub that attracted such critical artistic figures as TaroOkamoto, Hiroshi Nakamura, Ay-O, Yoko Ono, Mieko Shiomi and TetsumiKudo; photographers Daido Moriyama, Eikoh Hosoe and Shomei Tomatsu;illustrators and graphic designers Tadanori Yokoo, Kohei Sugiuraand Kiyoshi Awazu; and architects Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa;as well as many important artists' collectives. Curator DoryunChong's essay investigates Tokyo's sociopolitical context and themassive urban changes that set the stage for the city to emerge asa vital node in the international avant-garde network. Essays byscholars Hayashi Michio and Miryam Sas and curator Mika Yoshitakediscuss critical concepts in art and culture at this time,including "graphism," which manifested itself across variousmediums; the development of new sculptural languages; and the"intermedia" tendency that engendered provocative cross-pollinationamong artistic genres. Masatoshi Nakajima provides an illustratedchronology and Yuri Mitsuda supplies artist biographies. Tokyo1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde brings fresh insight to this dynamicmetropolis during a time of remarkable artistic burgeoning.