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Art
Studies
01

ura•
•

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International Seminar 201.{
Day 1 1September 30, 2014 I Tues I18:00-19 :30
Day 21October 1, 2014 IWed I10:00-18 :30
Day 3 I October 2, 2014 I Thurs I10:00-13:00
Venue IJFIC Hall "Sakura," The Japan Foundation.Tokyo
Organizer IThe Japan Foundation Asia Center

IOil
•

Art
Studies01

The Japan Foundation Asia Center

Art
Studies
01
Cultural Rebellion in Asia 1960-1989
Report.

-••Furuichi Yasuko

This seminar was organizedby the Japan Foundation Asia
Center and was held from
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
to Thursday, October 2, 2014
at the Japan Foundation inTokyo, assisted by Japanese/
English simultaneousinterpretation.

Sano MeikoAndrew Maerkle. ..

Sano Meiko.. . .

Harada Machiko
Hirano Mayumi
Horiuchi Naoko

Simultaneous interpretation:
Hiroi Hatsumi, Kobayashi
Akiko, and Yokota Kayoko.

Kohno Haruko
This report consists of thepresentation papers submitted and transcription of the
discussions that took place
during the seminar.

Matsuura Naomi
Namba Sachiko
•

•

....

Jo

Arai Satomi
Endo Yu
Shimoyama Masaya

The Japan Foundation Asia
Center is responsible for editing and finalizing the materials for this report.

. .... . .

Aikawa Kenichi

The original presentation
papers were revised andfinalized by the authors after
the seminar for this report.

Mori Daishiro..

-

Sawara Printing Co., Ltd.

..

The Japan Foundation Asia Center
4-4-1 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

160-0004, Japan
tel: 81. 3. 5369. 6025
fax: 81.3.5369.6036
http://www.jpf.go.jp/

www.jfac.jp

Published on March 2015

©2015
The Japan Foundation/
all rights reserved.

Authors

The positions and affiliationsof the panelists are as of
October 2014.
The order of family names
and given names of people
spelled out in Japanese andEnglish follow a set of standard rules applied by theJapan Foundation, except
for those names that alreadyhave existing rules. As a rule,
Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean,
and Japanese names are
spelled out in the order offamily name and given name.

Cultural Rebellion inAsia !1960- 1989

Art

Studies
01-

Panelist Profiles
Seminar Program

004

1117

Keynote Speech019

Session I
Session II

047-

In the Case of East Asia
In the Case of Southeast Asia
Discus ion on Sessions I and Il

D71

Sessionfil

Plenary Di cussion

115

Reflecting on the Seminar

119
120

1<t.1J»•~4-JI,'laT-·~A

121
129
151
175

·1r7£..:.-I--7£. • :.-II'Jf7$,7
Dl7$,71!tt'-UA.~004

Panelist Profiles
I Alphabetical order of family name I

Art Studies_01

Patrick D. Flores
Professor. Art Studies Department, University of thePhilippines Diliman

Born in Manila, the Philippines, 1969. Received M.A.
(Art History) in 1995 and Ph.D. (Philippine Studies) in2000 from the University of hilippines. Publications
include Painting History: Revisions in Philippine
Colonial Art (University of the Philippines Officeof Research and Publications, 1999), "Apparently,
Cubism," (Cubism in Asia, exh. cat., 2005), and Past
Peripheral: Curation in Southeast Asia (National
University of Singapore Museum, 2008). Curatorial
projects include the Philippine Pavilion for the 1st
Melbourne Biennale (1999), "36 Ideas from Asia,"(organized by the Singapore Art Museum traveling in Europe, 2002-03), and "Luz: Traces of
Depiction," (Philippine National Museum, Manila,
2006). Currently also curator of the University of thePhilippines-Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana
Research Center. Lives and works in Manila.
Hayashi Michio
Professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University

Born in Hakodate, Japan,1959. Received M.A.
in 1991 and Ph.D. (Art History) in 1999 from the
Department of Art History and Archaeology,
Columbia University. Specializes in Western art history and art criticism. Author of Painting Dies Twice,or Never, vol.1 -7 (Art Trace Press, 2003-09), andco-editor/writer of From Postwar to Postmodern:
Art in Japan 1945-1989 (Museum of Modern Art,
New York, 2012). Catalogue essays include,"On the
Table: Experiments on Still Lites," (Cubism in Asia,
exh. cat., 2005), "Kaiga to KtJkan - Rosuk6 Chaperu
no Keiken [Painting and Space - Experiencing the
Rothko Chapel]." (Mark Rothko, exh. cat., 2009),
and "Tracing the Graphic in Postwar Japanese Art"
(Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, exh. cat.,2012). Lives and works in Tokyo.
Prapon Kumjim
Head of the Art Center, Center of Academic Resources,
Chulalongkorn University

Born in Bangkok, Thailand. 1972. Received MF.A.
(Multidisciplinary Practice) from Glasgow Schoolof Art, Scotland, and D.F.A. (Media Arts) in 2009
from RMIT University, Melbourne. Lecturer at theFaculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn
University Current position since 2004. Exhibited
works in shows such as "Somewhere Beyond
the Sea" (Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok,
2001 ), "Memory and Disappearance - Recent Thai
Art" (Momenta Art, New York, 2003), "Bangkok,
Bangkok" (De Markten, Kunstenfestivaldesarts,

005

Chapter1

Brussels, 2005) and "My Time is Not Your
Time" (RMIT School of Art Gallery, Melbourne,2009). Lives and works in Bangkok .

Seoul, 2000) and "Re: Quest - JapaneseContemporary Art since the 1970s" (Museumof Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, 2013).
Lives and works in Seoul.

Lai Ying-ying
Professor, Graduate School of Arts Management andCultural Policy, National Taiwan University of Arts

Pi Li

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, 1959. Received Ph.D.
(Art Education and Art Administration) fromthe National Taiwan Normal University. Served
as the senior curator at the Taipei Fine Arts
Museum and deputy director of the Museumof Contemporary Art, Taipei. Publications
include Taiwanese Avant-Garde: Complex Art
in the 1960s (Yuan-Laou Publishing Co. Ltd.,
2003), and Contemporary Arts Management(Artists Publishing, 2011). Curatorial projects
include,"The World According to Dada"(Taipei
Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 1988)."Gravityof the
Immaterial: The Inaugural Exhibition of ICA,
Taipei" (Institute of Contemporary Art, Taipei,
Taipei, 2001 ), and "Labyrinth of Pleasure"{Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taipei,
2001 ). Lives and works in Taipei.

Born in Wuhan, China, 1974. Received M .A .
(Art History) in 2000 and Ph.D. (Art Theory)in 2009 from the Department of Art History,
Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing . Works
as an art critic and curator. Assistant curator
for the Chinese Pavilion for the 25th Sao Paolo
Biennale (2002) and 4th Shanghai Biennale(2002). Other curatorial projects include,"Star of Hope," (Qingdao Sculpture Museum,Shandong, 2000), "Under Construction: New
Dimensions of Asian Art;' (Tokyo Opera City Art
Gallery I The Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo,
2002), "China Power Station;' (Serpentine
Gallery, London, 2006), and "Overstep : ShenYi Elsie & Lei Benben Works," (Siemens Home
Appliance Art Space, Beijing, 2011 ). Currently
Sigg Senior Curator for M+ scheduled to open
in 2018. Lives and works in Hong Kong.

Sigg Senior Curator. M+

Nguyen Trinh Thi
Video Artist

Yu Jin Seng

Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, 1973. Received M.A.
(Journalism) in 1999 from the University of
Iowa and Masters of Pacific International
Affairs in 2005 from University of California
San Diego . Uses a variety of materials suchas documentaries, experimental films, singlechannel videos, and photographs to produce moving-image works. Exhibited works
in shows such as "LIM DIM" (Sternersen
Museum, Oslo, 2009), the 2nd Kuandu
B1ennale (Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts,
Taiwan, 2010), and "Move on Asia: Video Art
in Asia 2002 to 2012" (ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2013).
Founded Hanoi DocLab, an independent
space for documentary film and video art, in2009. Lives and works in Hanoi.

Senior Curator, National Gallery Singapore

Park Hyesung

Born in Singapore, 1979. Received MA(History) from the National University ofSingapore, and enrolled in the Ph.D. course at
the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne
since 2014. Chief curator of the Southeast Asia
Gallery at the National Art Gallery, Singapore
in 2010. Current position since 2014. Curatorial
projects include, "From Words to Pictures: Art
During the Emergency,"(Singapore Art
Museum, Singapore, 2007) and the 4th
Singapore Biennale (co-curator, 2013).
Publications include "Artistic Expressions inFine Art," (Malay Heritage of Singapore,
Suntree Media Pte., Ltd .,2011), and "Mapping
Art in Southeast Asia;' (Institution for the
Future, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Arts,
2012). Lives and works in Singapore

Curator, National Museum of Modern andContemporary Art, Korea

Simon Soon

Born in lncheon, Korea, 1974. Received
M.FA. (Art Theory) in 2003, and Ph.D. (ArtsManagement) in 2011 from Seoul National
University. Curator at the Museum of Art,
Seoul National University during 2011-13 .
Current position since 2013. Involved in showssuch as "Kim Byung-ki" (Gana Art Gallery,

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Art History andFilm Studies, University of Sydney

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1983.
Publications include "An Empty Canvas onwhich Many Shadows Have Already Fallen,"(New Malaysian Essays 3, Matahari Books,
2010) and "Spatio-Temporal Currency: The

Kalachakra Sand Mandala as Cultural Object in
Performance," (Modern Art Asia, issue 12, Enzo
Arts and Publishing Ltd., 2012). Participated insymposia such as "Southeast Asia Graduate
Students Conference," (Southeast Asia
Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York,2012), "Sites of Construction : Exhibition and
the Making of Recent Art History in Asia;' (Asia
Art Archive, Hong Kong, 2013), and"Singapore Biennale 2013 Symposium;•(Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, 2014) .
Lives and works in Sydney.
Suzuki Katsuo
Curator, National Museum of Modern Art , Tokyo

Born in Tokyo, Japan, 1968. Received M.A. (ArtHistory) from the University of Tokyo. Has
worked at current museum since 1998, specializing in Japanese and Western modern andcontemporary art. Curatorial projects include"Brazil : Body Nostalgia"(2004), "Okinawa
Prismed: 1872-2008"(2008), and "Experimental
Ground 1950s"(2012) at the National Museumof Modern Art, Tokyo. Participated in symposia
including, "In Search of a New Narrative of
Postwar Japanese Art: What Becomes Visible
through the Exhibitions at the Two Modern Art
Museums in New York and Tokyo;' (National
Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, The JapanFoundation, 2012). Lives and works in Tokyo.
Adele Tan
Curator. National Gallery Singapore

Received Ph.D. (Art History) from the
Courtauld Institute of Art in London .
Specializing in Southeast Asian and Chinesecontemporary art . Publications include, "LeeWen and the Untaming of Yves Klein : Art andthe Iterative Force," ( PAJ: A Journal of
Performance and Art, vol.32, no . 2, The MIT
Press, 2010) and "Return of the Exhibition:
12th Istanbul Biennial;'(Eyeline, no.76, Eyeline
Publishing Ltd., 2012). Lives and works in
Singapore.

Seminar Program
Pi Li
SiggSeniorCurator, M+

Right is Wrong: Chinese Art before 1989

Park Hyesung
Curator, NationalMuseumof Modernand
Art, Korea
Contemporary

Boundary Riders of Korean Art in
1960s-1970s

Lai Ying-ying
Professor, Graduate
SchoolofArtsManagement
andCulturalPolicy, National
TaiwanUniversity
ofArts

Art into Action: Taiwanese Activists from1960sto1980s

Hayashi Michio
Professor,
FacultyofLiberalArts,SophiaUniver.;ity

DAY1
September 30 (Tues)• I

Cultural Rebellion:
Japan from the 1960s to the 1980s• I

Opening Address by the Organizer

13:30-13 :35
Suzuki Katsuo

Opening comment for Session 2 byModerator : Hayashi Michio

Curator,NationalMuseumof ModernArt, Tokyo

Imagining Cultural Solidarity in Asia Now

Yu Jin Seng
SeniorCurator, National Gallery
Singapore

DAY2
October 1 (Wed)
Opening comments andDiscussion Points byModerator: Hayashi Michio
Opening comment for Session 1 byModerator: Suzuki Katsuo

117

Cultural Rebellion in&ia 1g6o rg8g

Dayl
Keynote Speech
Suzuki Katsuo
ImaginingCulturalSolidarityin Asia Now

Cullur a l Hebe llion in Asia l196o - 1989

Art Studies_01

008

Imagining CulturalSolidarityin Asia Now
Suzuki Katsuo
Curator, National Museum of Modern Art , Tokyo

0

Introdu ction
Good evening. Before beginning, I would
first like to thank everyone for assembling here
in Tokyo for this seminar .

the overall framework of our research . In thelatter half, I will introduce specific examples
for considering how the idea of "Asia" wasperceived in the art of Japan of the 1960s and'70s, which I hope will link to the discussions
that follow over the coming days.

1
Still searching for connections that transcend national frameworks, we researchers
from across Asia are only just beginning the
project of collaboratively developing a new
historical vision . This international seminar,"Cultural Rebellion in Asia 1960-1989," hasbeen conceived as the basic research platform
for an eventual exhibition project. However,for the time being, I think it is better for us tokeep an open mind, and explore all the possibilities for comparative research without fixating on the exhibition as such.
Instead of those who were active in art
during the period in question, the participants
here all belong to the generations that followed. Without direct experience of that time,
we must respond with acute sensitivity when
considering the events of this turbulent period
in Asia-and all the more so when dealing
with other countries' histories . Yet, although
this may come across as a contradiction of
the previous statement, we cannot achieve
truly exciting comparative research without
jumping across different contexts. What weare tasked with is a conscientious and yetbold discovery of new reference points for theperiod, which even those who were involved
in it could not imagine.
To set the stage for the seminar, in thefirst half of this short keynote speech I willaddress two aspects of the issues related to
Suzuki Katsuo

A Di agram of the Aesthetics ofRebellion
Following the "Cubism in Asia" exhibition
held in Japan, Korea, and Singapore from 2005
to 2006, this collaborative project is conceived
as an opportunity for transnational comparative art research in Asia. The theme on thisoccasion addresses the differing aspects of"rebellion" and "resistances" attempted by theart of this turbulent period in Asia, which spanfrom the 1960s to the '80s. r'J;
If we agree that issues related to ethnic
independence and national construction werea common theme of art in Asia in the 1950s,
then what the artists of the period from 1960
to 1989 confronted was their fundamental
skepticism about modernization. Initially, thegoal for the developing nations of Asia wassurely the achievement of a modern societyrooted in the liberty, equality, and peace that
the West could not realize. Nevertheless,through both internal and external resistanceand intervention, in many cases those dreams
fell by the wayside. This period, 1960 to 1989,
was the time in Asia for reflection on thatagonizing history, as well as for new attempts
to rebuild the platform for social change.
In art, too, there was a reconsideration of
attitudes that sought validation in the West,Chapter 1

009

CulturalRebellion
in Asia1960-1989

formal aspects

Diagram of Aesthetics of Rebelliontdevelopment-oriented
political system

class
Institutional

dictatorship

Modernismin
art
cold war/hot war\

censorship

post-colonial!

situationnation-state/

Historynational identity

nationalism

culture/art

politics/ economy
aspects

and in place of the modernist myth of autonomy, art was now pursued as a form of social
critique . Therefore, concepts of art wererevised in relation to each country's historicaland social context, and new channels ofcommunication for connecting with the everyday lives of the people were explored. Throughthe 1970s and '80s, this qualitative change inart proceeded in tandem with the rise of
pro-democracy movements responding to thepolitical powers that had prohibited freedomof speech . The history of struggle by thepeople of Asia to win their own public spaceon the basis of unflinching bargaining power
is a precious intellectual resource for those of
us living today.
The objective of this project is to sharesuch past practices of "rebellion" as a means
for questioning the present and future, while
discovering new connections in the combined
regional framework of East and Southeast
Asia. Rather than insisting upon a unified
Asia, the creation of an inter-Asian history
should deepen mutual recognition within therich diversity of the region, and discover multiple new historical reference points that facilitate a critical reinterpretation of the world. In
other words, this project itself must exercise
criticality as a form of "cultural rebellion" inthe present .
The first thing that comes to mind formaintaining a transnational perspective inapproaching the diverse artistic movements ofthe period in question is the attempt in Europe
and the United States over the past decade or
so to create a "global art history." This involves
an analytic method in which categories thatemerged in Europe and the United Statessince the 1960s, such as "Pop art," "Land art,"
DAY1 September30

and "Conceptual art," are forced upon nonWestern contexts. Essentially, this is a methodology that evaluates differences with
Western movements, while extrapolating
models based on visual analogies that arecontingent upon Western concepts.
Admittedly, as a cognitive frame for the comparative research of complex phenomena, thisapproach has a certain degree ofeffectiveness.
However, we can also point out drawbacks to this methodology. Conceived andrefined in the Western context, these categories are themselves highly historical products,
leaving unresolved the original question ofwhether or not they are effective in the analysis of non-Western art . Moreover, as long as
one adopts this analytic method, it is impos sible to consider local conditions where multiple expressive practices exist in relation toeach other, both in symbiosis and in antagonism. It is also difficult to foreground flows of
exchange in the Asian region.
In our project, I would like to try taking
a different approach. In placing emphasis onunderstanding the internal logic and motivations that produce each mode of expression in
their local contexts, we can focus not only on
the formal qualities but also on the social andpolitical significance such expression carries
in sorting, or organizing, them. If we do so, I
believe that we will be able to comprehensively
grasp the mutual relations between multiple,
coexisting styles, as well as the ramifications ofthe "rebellions" they have generated.
From this line of thought, I have comeup with the following categories for apprehending the art of Asia during the period inquestion.
Imagining Cultural So liclaril) in Asia :\ow

Iii"' .

Asnec•, of c.,ltur I R t,ell n ,r A.si?
lflf,() '989

Ii
D1dg1

,,.. of Aesth t1r,,'>f fiebf'll,orCultur a l l\ eb,•llion in \s ia 196o 1989"'

Wu Hung and Christopher Philips,
Between Past and Future: New Chinese
Photography and Video (NewYork: International Center of Photography; Chicago:
Smart Museum of Art. 2004), pp.12 16.

b.IB._1l,·-':l.u·1·1J_!

010

1 [ Abstract Painting
Having developed under the overwhelming influence of Art lnformel and Abstract
Expressionism, abstract painting in Asia initiallyexpressed opposition to prevailing modes ofnaturalistic painting . However, within a shortperiod, it overran the art world, and began toassume institutional authority.
So-called "Eastern thought" was often
used as a critical standard for evaluating such
paintings, which gained authenticity in the
narratives of national identity in each country's art history. On the other hand, viewed
from the perspective of the aesthetic conflictsof the Cold War, abstract painting was also astyle that embodied the ideology of "freedom "in the West, in particular the United States.
Considered from the position with socialchange as its goal, formalism that eliminates
narrative from painting is criticized for being
apolitical and conformist .

the idea of an "art for the people," while criticizing modernist art's seclusion from society.
They produced highly critical works satirizing
authoritarian politics and the contradictions ofcapitalist society .
Generally, they employed realist modesof expression, but they referenced a broad
range of precedents from traditional craft to
Mexican mural painting and photo collage.
Going so far as to take their works out into thestreets, they were distinguished by the searchto create a new public space .

2 [ Experimental Art
This marks the appearance of a mode ofexpression that breaks away from the existing
system of painting and sculpture to incorporate diverse media-from photography andvideo to installation and performance-in an
essential critique of academicized modern art .
Transcending the boundaries between art
and the everyday, high and low culture, anddifferent genres, this art questions the rootsof the system of art derived from the West,attempting all manner of conceptual or formal
experimentation. Broadly speaking, it can bedivided between tendencies toward anti-illusionism on the one hand, and the employment
of semiotic approaches on the other .
It is possible to point out the resemblance
between this art and Western movements
such as Pop art, Minimal art, Conceptual art,
Video art, and Happenings, but this is notentirely a matter of artists directly receiving knowledge of Western art through study
abroad, or through the media, as there arealso cases in which an artist has independently arrived at a similar mode of expression
through their own logic .
3 [ Art as Activism
From the late 1960s through to the '70s,
as student-led democracy movements spread
across Asia, there was a rediscovery of thepolitical role of art that commits to real situations. The activities of artist groups with manifestos, like "Kaisahan (Solidarity)"in thePhilippines and "The Artists' Front" in Thailand,
as well as the broader movement behind"Minjung art (People'sart)"in Korea,all advanced
Suzuki Katsuo

Art Studies_Ol

4 Documentary as Method
With the exception of Japan, independent documentary films did not appear in Asia
until the 1980s. During a time when freedomof expression was restricted, the people had
no chance to actively produce their own films.
There were only news and propaganda movies produced and distributed by the state.
However, the situation was different in thecase of photography, which had a deep amateur base. In China, the first Tiananmen
Square incident took place on April 5, 1976,
involving clashes between citizens andauthorities which sparked when wreathes set
out in mourning for Zhou Enlai were removed
from the square . The amateur cameramen
who documented this event secretly built up
their own network, planning to make a publication that would preserve these photographs
as a form of collective memory.
Ironically, their planned publication was
co-opted by the state, and released in 1979 as
the photo book People's Mourning. However,
the amateur photographers, calling for thetransformation of awareness and sensibility
through photography, were one step ahead,
and, in April of the same year, they held anunauthorized photo exhibition at the
Zhongshan Sun Wen Memorial Park in Beijing,
titled "Nature, Society and Man." These
documents of the ordinary lives of the people
that had been suppressed during the Cultural
Revolution period corresponded with thegathering momentum for the reclamation ofpolitical agency, and powerfully resonatedwith the mood of the time. We can infer that inother countries, as well, during periods when
democracy movements were on the rise,
documentary as a means for social critique
produced similar practices.
Certainly, these categories are not strictly
defined, but they may be of assistance invisualizing the relations between coexistingstyles. In reality, there are many works thatstraddle multiple fields . And, indeed, I have

Chaptert

presented this diagram in order to focus attention on those areas where such fields overlap.
For example, "Activism" is usually immediately associated with "Social Realism," butif we look at the internal logic of such works,
they may also overlap with "Documentary" or"Experimental Art ."2
Changes in the Cold War Structure andthe Discourse of the "Third World"
Another issue we must address is how
to determine a vantage point for comprehensively grasping the regions of "East Asia" and"Southeast Asia."
To date, when studying the art history of
Asia on a "regional" level, it has been customary to distinguish between "East Asia" and"Southeast Asia." There is, of course, a historical necessity to this, but in thinking about Asia
during the period 1960 to 1989 from a transnational perspective, it is perhaps better to seekout underlying connections between the two,such as the overseas Chinese network, or thecommunist party networks that existed prior
to the illegalization of communism. We could
also find connections between the participating nations of the Bandung Conference,
countries that host American military facilities, countries that sent soldiers to the Vietnam
War, or even by considering the advance into
Asia of Japanese conglomerates transcending
national borders; these channels of circulation
for people, things, and information can produce an alternative map of Asia.
What is of particular importance here isan understanding of the complex Cold War
structures peculiar to Asia . The Cold War in
Asia is often represented as a bipolar structure split by the anti-communist defense lineof American strategy in Asia, but it goes
without saying that this view of the Cold War
is warped by the American perspective.
There are no doubt intentional exclusions
here . These include, firstly, the existence ofChina, and, secondly, the Leftist intellectual
networks, as well as the ideology of Third
World ism, that bridged socialist andcapitalist blocs.
Consider this painting, made collaboratively, in 1961, by the Chinese artists Wu
Biduan and Jin Shangyi. The title is Chairman
Mao Standing with People of Asia, Africa andLatin America. The concept of the "Third
World" was established at the Bandung
Conference of 1955, when the participantsannounced that, with polarization escalating
DAY1 September30

Ott

between the United States and Soviet Union
in the years since World War II, they would
pursue a third line that belonged to neither
camps. Many members of this Third World
were emerging nations that had only justestablished independence from colonial ruleby the West. They leapt onto the world stage
as a new, international, polit ical order calling for mutual solidarity and opposition tocolonialism.
This painting communicates China'sview of itself as playing a central role in theformation of the Third World. And it seems
that from the 1950s to the 70s, there was, infact, an intellectual movement in China totranslate literature from across the Third
World. Oddly, a kimono-clad Japanese
woman is depicted in a central position, and,what's more, standing next to Mao Zedong.
However, while the other figures are shown
holding hands and casually linked together,
the woman alone has her hands folded
before her, appearing more like an outside
observer. Perhaps this is meant to represent
Japan's ambiguous position at Bandung as
both participant and former colonizer .
In The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon
wrote, "the Third World today faces Europe
like a colossal mass whose aim should be to
try to resolve the problems to which Europe
has not been able to find the answers." CQAs
this quote powerfully expresses, the idealization of the Third World was a project for worldchange that would overcome the limitations
and contradictions of Western modernity
to realize an even more elevated modernity.
Transcending the frameworks of ideology
and nation, this provided a contemporaneous
image of a resolute solidarity that could create
horizontal connections across the globe.
On top of this, the shock of the Cultural
Revolution, which began in 1966, had repercussions the world over. The destructive
actions of the "Red Guard," who sought tocorrect their corrupted society, inspired aworld youth rebellion-although this was moreas an image than as reality. We can imagine,
given the relative proximity, that the influence
on Asia was significant. Formed in Thailand
in 1974, the Artists' Front was a group that
promoted the creation of an art for the people,
in opposition to Western modernism and its
accompanying art . It is said that the members of this group fervently read two books :the translation of Mao Zedong's speech at theForum on Literature and Art in Yan'an, and thetreatise Art for Life: Art for the People, written by Chit Phumisak, the poet and icon of
the Thai democracy movement. !!l Maoism
Ima gi nin g Cullu ra l So lid ariLy in As ia Now

Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the
Earth, trans. Constance Farrington(Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.,
1967), p.253.

Apinan Poshyananda, Modem Art m
Thailand: Nineteenth and TwentiethCenturies (New York: Oxford University
Press. 1992), p.160.

Chen Kuan-hs1ng, Asta as Method.
Toward De1mper1alizat1on(DurharT Duke
University Press, 2010), p 8.

Jim Supangkat, 'Contemporary Art,n Indonesia, Development Beyond
the 1970s,"M m Southeast Asia 7997
Gltmpses mto the Future, exh. cat( Tokyo· Museum of Contemporary Art,
Tokyo, The Japan Foundation As,a Center
Hrosh1rriaH1rosh1mP
City Muse11mof
Contemporary Art, 1997), p 169

Tate1sh1K61ch1,Red Tiger Superexpress,
1964, 011on canvas, 130.3 x 162cm

Ii.!.,I~
Tate1sh1K6ichi, Great Farm Village, 1966,
oil on canvas, 60.5x73cm

Tateish1 K6ichi, Samura~ the Watcher
1965, oil on canvas, 130.3x162cm

ArtSrudies_Ol012

Cultur al l\ cbcl li on in ,\si a 196o 1989

even infiltrated the student movement in thePhilippines .
Tsurumi Yoshiyuki, a member of theJapanese citizens' movement Betonamu ni
heiwa wo! Shimin reng6 (Citizens'Alliancefor
Peacefor Vietnam),recalls how, on a visit toHong Kong in the 1970s, he was surprised
to find a bookstore carrying copies of Mao 's
Red Book translated into some 30 different
languages. One must be wary of overstating
the case, but certainly there was a latent Third
World network that functioned in reality.
I will next consider the reasons for why
artistic rebellions occurred simultaneously
across Asia in the 1970s. This is the effect ofa qualitative shift in the Cold War structure in
Asia: the impact of the sudden reconciliationin U.S.-China relations brought about by the1971 announcement of the Nixon Doctrine,
followed by Nixon's visit to China in 1972. This
was the end of the Cold War which prioritized
ideological opposition.
One of the central figures of "Inter-Asian
Cultural Studies," Chen Kuan-hsing asserts
that, dominated by the overwhelming ideology of "anti-communism-pro-Americanism,"
the Asian Cold War structure "produced animage of the communists as evil." As a result,"being antigovernment was equivalent tobeing communist," which, Chen concludes,
became "the historical reason why the suppression of grass-roots democratic movements " was supported .
The Indonesian art historian Jim
Supangkat has also sought in such anticommunist ideology the reasons behind thede-politicization of Indonesian art in the late1960s. Following the massacre of communists in Indonesia sparked by the September
30 incident of 1965, artist groups affiliatedwith the communist party disappeared, and,Supangkat writes, "many artists [tried) hard to
avoid political activities and political impressions in their works."
This kind of extreme, anti-communist ideology was suddenly wiped out with the reconciliation between the United States and China.
For countries that were governed-not just in
diplomacy but also in internal politics-throughintegration with the American anti-communist
policy, the legitimacy of the nation itself wascast into doubt. In contrast, for the forces seeking democratization, this probably appeared to
be a chance to overturn systems whose vulnerability had been exposed. In the background of
the reclamation of politics and political activities by the Asian artists of the 1970s were theCold War detente and the rifts in its accompanying anti-communist ideology. Even so, theuzuk, K t uo

achievement of democratization in many countries would have to wait until the 1980s.

3Asia Viewe d from Japan

Finally, I will address the Japanese artists' awareness of Asia, as well as their individual approaches to "rebellion," in the hopethat this will provide seeds for the discussions
following from tomorrow onward.

11Tateishi K6ichi: Propaganda for Change
In 1966, the exhibition "Sannin no mhonjin ten (Sannin no gaka ni yoru sengo 20 nen)," or, the"Three Japanese Exhibition (20 YearsPost-War
by ThreePainters),"washeld at Gallery Nippon
in Tokyo. The three painters were Yamashita
Kikuji, then in his 40s, Nakamura Hiroshi, who
was in his 30s, and Tateishi K6ichi, who was inhis 20s. All three had kept their distance fromthe "lnformel Whirlwind," and had consistently continued making figurative paintings .
It was in this exhibition that Tateishi presented
a group of works suggesting a bird's-eye viewof Japan's international relations in the postwar period .
In the work Red Tiger Superexpress, ,;, ·from 1964, a mushroom cloud is depictedagainst a stark red sky. This was a response to
the news of China's successful nuclear weapons tests of the same year. Only a few years
removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis, thetests sent shockwaves across neighboring
Japan. The highway along which the red tigers
race, which we can assume crosses the East
China Sea to reach Japan, is a parody of theformer Japanese empire's dream for the South
Manchuria Railway to extend across thecontinent. This can also be interpreted as animage of the Chinese counterattack against
the historical amnesia of Japan which, without even attempting to make reparation for
the Sino-Japanese War, immediately went on
to enjoy the fruits of "post-war" prosperity. It
was in 1972 that a restoration of diplomatic
relations between Japan and China wascompleted.
Images of nuclear and hydrogen bombs
recur also in the work Great Farm Village r,,,_from 1966. Standing in the foreground as akind of guide to the pictorial space is the
Alfred E. Neuman character from theAmerican satirical comic MAD magazine,
which Tateishi read obsessively. His left index
finger indicates that the button of a nuclear
missile launcher has been pressed. A pack of
red locomotives bears down on the Japanese013

Chapter1

islands from all sides. In the center flies anairplane carrying a portrait of Mao Zedong.
The islands are already sinking under thesethreats, and from the Sea of Japan to the
Pacific Ocean, the surrounding waters cascade into a vacuum like the Niagara Falls. The
title "Great Farm Village" is of course takenfrom Mao Zedong's revolutionary theory ofusing farming communities as a base forencircling the urban centers. This suggeststhat the locomotives surrounding Japan could
be the other countries of Asia, with China attheir head.
Referencing the adaptation of Kurosawa
Akira's Y6jimb6 into a Western film, the figureof the samurai depicted in 1965's Samurai, theWatcher ~ is that of the character Sanjur6,
as portrayed by Mifune Tashiro, but shown
overlooking the American West from a greatrock. Sanjur6 is assessing the prospects of
two rival factions bent on conflict. Overlooking
the scene from the top of a sand dune is also
the MAD magazine boy. From the left of thecomposition marches in one faction, of either
Chinese or communists , carrying a Mao
Zedong banner . From the right enter members of the Ku Klux Klan, the American white
supremacist organization. The Civil Rights
Act was finally enacted in the United States in
1964, but in response there was an explosionof violence against blacks by the KKK. Tateishi
depicts the opposition between the UnitedStates and China not as a collision of Cold War
ideologies, but rather as the racial opposition
between the white and Asian peoples . Or, perhaps this is a representation of the Vietnam
War as proxy war between the United States
and China. And the time for Sanjur6 the samurai-Japan-to decide which side to support isfast approaching .
In 1964, the same year that the shinkansen bullet train began operations, Tateishi andNakamura established the Kank6 Geijutsu
Kenkyujo (Sightseeing Art Institute), holding their"Rojo hok6 ten" ("Promenading-on -the-Street"
exhibition) by parading their paintings aroundthe environs of Tokyo station during the morning rush hour. This was a guerilla-style action
intended to blur the lines between art andeveryday life. Viewing modernism as thedescent into "private art," Tateishi attempted
to revive the social significance of painting by
inventing new channels for communication
with viewers.
Making full use of popular symbols thatanybody could recognize, he conceived ofpainting as a medium for visual circulationthat would stimulate the creative reading of
the world . That "legibility" appears also in the
DAY1 September 30

lmai,riningCultuml Solidarit) in •\sia \o,\al lk ll<'llio11in \ sia 1960 - 1989
f.11lt11r

014

Art Studies_Olmural movement, but what is important is theway it functions as a kind of open text without
becoming a tool for mass-education . In thesense that it provided material for the dialogue
required by the masses, Tateishi's painting
could be called a kind of creative propaganda.
I am sure rethinking concepts of propaganda
will be an important issue in the context ofAsia's culture of rebellion .

Ii
AKdSe awa Genp,;

no 19 Dec rr be '2 Akasegawa Genpei : Media Hijacking
Having begun his career at the same timeas Tateishi, Akasegawa Genpei spent the latter half of the 1960s embroiled in the "Sen-en
satsu saiban" (Thousand -yen Note Trial), during
which time he shifted his practice to the realmof newspapers and magazines, establishing aunique style of what could be called "parody
journalism ." Adding essays to his caricaturestyle illustrations, he presented a cynical viewof the social climate, agitating readers throughthe employment of sly rhetoric . Feigning journalism in order to infiltrate the mainstream
media, he saw himself as a dangerous element
quietly plotting the hijacking of the pages ofnewspapers and magazines.
In July 1970, Akesagawa published thefirst issue of his own media entity, Sakura
Gah6 (Sakura Illustrated). as an insert in the
Asahi Journal, which enjoyed a broad readership from the late 1960s through to the '70s .
Adhering to newspaper format, the pages ofthis insert were marked with the date, reflect ing a sense of topicality in its production . Even
if the student-led social protest movement had
lost some of the vigor it had applied to issues
such as the 1970 renewal of the Japan-U.S.
Security Treaty, opposition to the Vietnam
War, negotiations for the reversion of Okinawa
from the U.S. administration, and disputes
with university authorities, it was still simmer ing in the background .
In Sakura Gah6 no.19 (published December
a squadron of 8-52 bombers is
13, 1970),
depicted screaming across the airspace above
a residential area of rickety wooden houses.
With its many American bases, Japan reaped
the benefits of the special demands of logistical support for the Vietnam War. And in U.S.administered Okinawa, the B-52s wereconstantly setting off to, and returning from,sorties to Vietnam . Through the media, theimage of the massive, black B-52 bomber
taking off from Japanese soil achieved broad
recognition. But in Akasegawa 's illustration,
the B-52s are not setting off on a bombing
run. Instead , they are making a recycling
service announcement for the people on the
ground, offering to exchange tissues rolls for