in the multicultural context of Singapore. In thi s context , this kind ofrepresentation of the female figure may have been a medium that enabled
the artist and viewers to gain independence during the process ofbuilding a nation-state . This aspect is worth considering. So the theory
can be supported, bur I think this painting leaves an impression that thisis not the only thing with which it is concerned. Mr. Mashadi , perhaps ,you could elaborate on this painting and its background.
Moderator (Matsumoto): Mr. Mashadi , please .
Ahmad Mashadi: Cheong Soo Pieng came from China to Singapore in1947 and painted this work in 1950, just three years after his arrival.
Indeed , even in 1952, there is a certain fascination with the femal e figure ,particularly in the works of Cheong Soo Pieng on Bali.
Having said that I think the work has to be put into the context of
the relationship to his own notions of Chinese-ness, his notions of the
Nanyang region, and the art historical baggage he may have brought withhim from China. So, I think the subject is for him first a painterl y subject ,as exemplified by the Cubistic rendering, bur also an ethnographic
subject. And hence, it warrants some kind of investigation in terms of his
association or his interpretation of the local culture and local women. But
I hesitate to impose a stronger interpretative notion on it. To me, at best,
this art work is perhaps a symbolic entry to , if not a kind of an appropriation of, the Nanyang , the South Seas. We must take into perspective thefact of him being an immigrant artist , as well as the values he held, or
what he found as new, i.e., his interest in primitivism and his interest withfinding a language in order to describe the new environment aroundhim.
Moderator (Matsumoto): The prominent feature of this painting is thefemale figure , as we know it, and the straight line that divides the picture
plane. This is in a sense "defamiliarization; ' to use Professor WintherTamaki 's word. The straight line was a decisive factor in our selection ofthis work for this show. So, let me question you again, Mr. Mashadi. Has
Cheong Soo Pieng painted other works that also cut the figure by astraight line?
Mashadi: Cheong Soo Pieng came to Singapore in 1947 and he died in1983 in Singapore , so he practiced art for about 36 years in Singapore.
This picture provides an interesting account of an entry into Singapore ,done three years after he arrives. He was also keen to enhance and develop
notions of the modern through this artwork, through creating these sharp314

lines. He was also looking, perhaps, at che figure, the subject matter being
new to him, being unfamiliar to him. So ic was advantageous to mobilize
local subject matter in order to arrive at a kind of distinctiveness, perhaps
comparable to a primitivisc attitude towards art making. Over time , asensua l element begin to emerge in his artworks, particularly after the1952 trip. By the time we get to the lace 1970s and early 1980s, he wasdoing series upon series of paintings of Balinese women, highly decorative, highly sensua l, with elements of Gustav Klimt being added. The
female figures appear refined, elongated, and subjected to a kind of exotic
profile.
So, he had a long-standing relationship with female subject matter,going back to 1950. Over time, his work has become more intense inexoticism. In some ways, I wou ld say that he has appropriated native
character istics and he had a fascination wit h the primitive that took him
in that direction.
Moderator (Matsumoto): Professor Ushiroshoji, please.
Ushiroshoji Masahiro : Mr. Tanaka quoted my text, so let me comment.
Among C heong Soo Pieng's works, this painting is exceptional. The
emp hasis on disharmony, and its un canny nature is something th at is o ut
of the ordinary for che artist. Singapore and its surrounding areas, orBritish-ruled Malay at the time , were not sure how their country would be
shaped as a nation under the unstable and rapidly chang in g conditions of
the times. So, althou gh everybody may have become a member of thesame nation in the end, in the process of nation-building, what waspreviously an exotic gaze turned into a sincere one, and fear and anxiety
came along with it.
Ma shad i: In some ways, Professor Ushiroshoji is correct in identifying
Cheong Soo Pieng's interest in multiculturalismand engagement with

the natives. But, on the ot her hand, one may look at his attitude with thesubjects that engaged him. These subjects exist purely as sub jects. And
most of the time they seem to appear in idyllic moments. There arepeople resting in the villages, people undertaking chores in the village,
and so on. At the same time, as in ethnographic study, there is an interestin observing the Malay people, the features that distinguish them from
Chinese and other races. So that 's the baggage of Ch in ese-ness that hebrings into it.
Also, if you look at the situation carefu lly, the 1950s in Singapore isa time which is very, very fragmented , and conditioned by suspicion , andby a lot of tension between the political groups, as we ll as the et hni c

J 15

groups. In 1950, there were racial riots that took place after the High
Court ruled that Maria Hercogh , a Dutch girl adopted and brought up by
a Malay woman during the war, was to be sent back to Holland after her
natural mother came back to claim her. It was a very tense moment ,indeed , but that tension should be seen as informing the shifts in Cheong
Soo Pieng 's mind.
I think many of these artists do not really create their work with anespecially deep understanding of culture and history . They mostly remainon the periphery in terms of their engagement with the language andculture . Most of the time, they depicted Malays in an idyllic state,although the 1950s were not an idyllic time between in terms of attempting to create multicultural engagement. I think their work shows thetensions and the difficult position we were in, but I would hesitate tothink that the artists were trying very hard in order to mediate those hardconditions.
Moderator (Matsumoto): Thank you for providing us with some background information. Let's depart from our discussion on Cheong Soo
Pieng and discuss Souza's work. Mr. Tanaka app lied Freudian theory inreading this work , but Professor Winther-Tamaki interpreted it from adifferent perspective. Professor Winther-Tamaki, do you have any
comments on Mr. Tanaka's view, or do you have any other arguments?
Bert W inth er-Tamaki: In connection with Mr. Tanaka's paper , I was
reminded of a series of paintings by Satomi Katsuzo. Not the paintings inthis exhibition and not the Cubist works , but the ones from the late 1930s
that have the title of Onna (Woman ). Those paintings have a very striking
sadistic quality and I think that Mr. Tanaka has provided some useful
directions for looking at paintings of this kind , particularly in the lastsection of his paper when, as he put it, he made "a leap" to the politicalsituation. That is very tempting to do and can be very effective if carriedout together with an analysis of the political context. Satomi Katsuzo wasliving during the period of fascism in Japan. In his writings, he addressed
the topic of the nation with much passion and in his paintings of women ,he used his paint brush like a weapon. So his women lost their prettinessand became darker and more miserable as he continued to paint. As Mr.
Tanaka noted parenthetically , the kinds of impulses seen in Satomi's work
were certain ly not limited to Cubism; they were broadly symptomatic of

yoga,or the practice of "Western painting" in Japan , of which Japanese
Cubism was a sub-category . Artists like Satomi sustained a foreign
professional identity and metier in the context of increasing militarism
and ultra-nationalism. They had to contend with the alterity of their316

European professional artistic ident ity. I think Mr. Tanaka offers a very
helpful theoretical framework for the analysis of such cases as Satomi's
depiction of th e female nud e in Western painting in the co nt ext of
Jap anese fascism .
Hayashi: Related to what was ju st said, I think Souza's case is similar tothat of Satomi. What I m ean is that Satomi, being a paint er who wasprominent in the field of yoga,was very absorbed in the Western m ed ium.
As a Japanese artist, he had to find a way to take inti ative and establish
independence from the West, so he searc hed for a device that co uld
guarant ee his po sition as an act ive agent. To reverse his position as apassive or even impot ent figur e, he m ay have decided to becom e
excessively violent agai nst his targete d device. Th e defor m ation of Souza's
female figur e is very excessive like that of Satomi's. Souza was born in
Goa, and th en moved to London to work, so he was brought up in a
multicultural environment . He was placed in a Weste rn environm ent andcho se to pur sue Western oil painting as a med ium for his expression. He
started from th e negative end of the scale of gaining ind epe nden ce, but tocatch up and m ove forward, h e m ay have becom e extre m ely aggressive in
depicting the female figure which was his targeted devic e formanipuliation.
Winther -Tamaki: Yes, in the way Souza writes about his own experiences,it does seem like that 's a smart way to pursue th e analysis of his work.
On th e other hand , you can easily imagin e th e emerg ence of anartist of an entir ely different character from the sam e context. And thi s istrue of Satomi 's context as well. So, it can't be a deterministic relation shipat least in th e way we negotiat e th e analysis. But, yes, the excessiveness of
it is rem arkab le. Of course , the history of the avant-garde provides a
traditi o n in which excess in shock value is nothing new. It's almost an
obligation of an artist to contest th eir rival avant-gardists by being evenmore shocking. I think that's probably part of what was driving him tothat kind of excess.
Moderator (Matsumoto):

Mr. Tatehata , please.

Tatehata Akira : C heong Soon Pieng 's Malay Woman, in particular, as well
as Souza's work, both empha size the uncanny and excessive violence . It istrue that th ese are essetial qualities of these paintings, but they arebasically car icatur es of Picasso's Les Demoisellesd'Avignon. So th ere ishum or emb edded in these works. For examp le, the feet of th e woman o n
the left are chang ed to hoo ves. This reverses and resto res the rights of

J 17

primiti vism w ith a C ubi st approac h. I think th ey had a way of relativizin g
C ubi sm th rough caricature. It is a fact th at excessive vio lence, w hi ch isessenti ally C u bist, is th ere , but we also need to look int o its ambi guit y.
Th e gaze of Malay Woman is un cann y, and reflects th e insecur ity exper ienced by a C hin ese art ist loo kin g at a Malay wo m an durin g the years of
establi shin g nation al ide ntit y. Yet, alth o ugh her gaze is di squetin g, her
figur e is rendered in a solid tr iangu lar shape, representin g a stro ng androbu st wo m an . A ba rbarous vertical lin e di vides th at stabl e stru ctu re. I
think th ere is ambi gu ity in th e un cann y gaze of th e wo m an w ho
em bo di es healthy and rob ust livelin ess.
H ence, ambi guit y is very imp orta nt . H avin g listened to Mr. Tan aka
and Pro fesso r Winth er-Tam ak i, I thin k I un dersta nd bette r w hy fem ale
figur es we re represent ed in C ubi sm , part icul arly aro und 1950, w hen th enatio ns were gainin g ind epende nce. C ubism was int rodu ced as an
ideo logy suit ed to th e period o f transition , but was never m eant to sett leand stay in its ado pted co untr y. As see n in th e case of Ind onesia, ot her
th an th e fact tha t th e Ind onesian peo ple we re und er co lo ni al rul e, th ere
was n't any single prin ciple th at bound th em to geth er. Na tionali sm
em erge d und er th e prin cipl e of gainin g ind epend ence fro m col oni al rul e.
So th e notio n of th e citizen was fabri cated in th e pro cess o f beco min g anatio n-state. A rulin g authority suit abl e for th e nation-stat e was ado pted
durin g thi s period, in replacem ent o f th e coloni al authorit y, in ord er toestabli sh an im agined nation . Nati o ns were built as th e co nsequ ence o f
thi s process. By th e tim e a n ation-state was establi shed , C ubi sm was nolonger import ant. So, in summ ary, natio nalism was fabri cated th roughim ag inin g a nation-state, wh ere th e gove rnin g auth o rity switc hed fro m
co lo ni al rul e to an ind epend ent state. C ubi sm was ad opt ed durin g thi sp rocess. It had to be C ubi sm ; Fauvism or Surr ealism wo uld have hadmo re link s to th e or igin al identit y. C ubi sm bro ught symb o ls th at were
extern al and Western , sym bo ls of the Oth er. Po rtr aying wo m an with
C ubi st symb o ls gave the artist powe r. C ubi sm m ay h ave had th e sam epowe r and auth or ity as th e force th at shaped natio nal identit y.
H ence, C ubi sm sur vived o nly durin g th e transitio nal period . On ceth e powe r was in place, it did not have a ro le to play. I think C ubi sm
sho uld be perc ieved as such,. H ence, fem ale represent atio ns werenecessary in thi s co nt ext. Wo men in ge neral are un cann y by natur e, but inth e process of buil d ing a natio n-state, th ey beca me a targe t for do min ation.
Wh at I foun d int erestin g is th e fact th at C ubi sm , w h ich em erge dd urin g th e transitio nal period , experienced a natur al declin e andexclu sio n o nce th e n atio n-state was firml y established . It was no t Realism
in th e style of Soed jojo no, but C ubi sm of Western o rigin , w ith a typical318

otherness and symbols that should have been rightly exculded, that was
adopted during a particular period. I have a hunch that Cubism isrelevant to a transitional period during which the power structure
undergoes a change. Cubism is an ideology that applies entirely totransition , and it could perhaps only exist under such conditions.
Moderator (Matsumoto): Wasn't Singapore already independent when thispainting was completed in the 1950s?
Tatehata: I think we are talking about a period that spans several years
before and after independence. In some cases, independence as such
would not be manifest in a nation-state. A will for independence would
develop before the actual independence , so we are not talking about afixed set of years when we talk about the transitional period.
Mashadi: Singapore in and around the time of independence is one
example, but the timing of independence varies from one country toanother. Nation-building

efforts had been seriously pursued at the time.

The spirit of independence emerged in this region. So, this is a transitory
period. It would be difficult to pin point one specific year.
Moderator (Matsumoto): Can I refer to Mr. Tatehata's comment on
ambiguity? In the case of Malay Woman, the triangular structure shows
stability and dignity on the one hand , but the diagonal line divides thesurface into two on the other. The face, for example , has two different
characteristics; the face on the left is feminine, and the one on the right ismasculine. I think this is one of the examples of the ambiguities embedded in this painting. There are various examples of such ambiguity. In thefemale image which Mr. Tanaka presented, we found menacing qualities.
A simple answer as to why they are menacing is that the women havemale identities. In other words, they represent both male and female. This
may underline the uncanniness. In searching for the uncanniness in
Cubist paintings, we arrive at its origin,Les Demoisellesd'Avignon.The
images of the women in this painting are deformed in an unprecedented
style, and in a way, they are seen as victims. But the deformation allows forthe figures to have both male and female qualities , and enables them tocountercharge the viewers. Hence , the victims turn into victimizers. Thisis the ominousness of this painting. Mr. Tatehata has presented the notionof "transitional period " as a period in which various factors intermix
inclusively , as opposed to going through a selective process. I have an
impression that many sorts of ambiguity are drifting.
Professor Hayashi, please.

319

Hayashi: I agree co what you said about ambiguity, but co describe these
traits as "maleness" and "femaleness" may be problematic. Maybe theyshould be termed "passiveness" and "aggressiveness'.' In listening to Mr.
Tanaka and Professor Winther-Tamaki , I thought about how the Les

Demoisellesd'Avignonis an exception among many of Picasso's Cubist
works. There is a debate as co whether or not this work marked the
beginning of Cubism or not. William Rubin claims it did , while Leo
Steinberg disagrees. In any case, in moving on co analytical Cubism,
Picasso did not incorporate expressions in the eyes as such in rendering
the human body , and his mask-like expressions become more abstract. I
think this was a process of academicization, if not neutralization. So, in
this context , LesDemoisellesd'Avignonwould appear co be an exception.
This is interesting because by gazing back at Picasso through our
discussion on Cubism in Asia , we can make a new discovery of Picasso's
work .
Moderator (Matsumoto): Professor Flores, please.
Patrick Flores: I want to go back co Professor Clark's comments because I
think he raised a very important methodologicalissue that has not beenadequate ly discussed. In his keynote speech, Mr. Tatehata offered the
provocative phrase "productive mistranslation'.' It made me think thatmaybe the issue is not really just translation, but also translatability. To
what degree is Cubism translatable within an Asian context? And so, I
think one way of answering the issue of translatability is reassessing ourown methods in making sense of these things. I was wondering how, forinstance, we could translate Freud in the context of Asian Cubism andhow productively we cou ld mistranslate Freud in discussing two concerns-

Asian Cubism and also women. There is literature that is critical of

Freud -

critical because his ideas are part of the Imperialist discourseand critical because his ideas are part of a patriarchal discourse. So, Freud ,before we actually cite him in the context of Asian Cubism and in thecontext of women in Asian Cubism , must also be critiqued or subjected
co some form of informed translation. I was little bit worried about how

Mr. Tanaka would assume, or would treat Freud's ideas as givens and not
as problems in the context of this discussion. And I was also wondering
how Professor Kim would respond to Mr. Tanaka's paper.
Kim Young-na: I would like co first hear how Mr. Tanaka could interpret
some of the Korean paintings in his context. If you app ly Freudianinterpretation , how would you interpret paintings like the Open Stalls byPark Re-hyun? This image is not very terrifying, but it is rather dignified.

320

So, how would you read this image?
Tanaka: I would like to answer Professor Flores and Professor Kim. Firstof all, Professor Flores, I think your criticism is correct. I may not be
giving you a straightforward answer, but I used Freudan theory to propose
one way in reading Cubist works. I think that we could read various
artworks through this method , and critique Freud as its consequence. The
reason I applied Freud in looking at the set of paintings is that I could not
find a better theory to base my argument on desire and power. So it was
useful for me to start my argument with this theory. It could not be
helped that I sounded as if I had agreed with Freud completely in thiscase. I wanted to specifically cite Freud because I found possibilities of
intepreting Cubist works through him.
Kim: One of the difficult things in discussing Asian Cubism is that wereally don 't know each country's social and political context, and I really
wonder whether you can really interpret the paintings without having
knowledge of this particular artist 's works , biography and so on. Many
Asian countries experienced war in the 1940s and one is tempted toconnect some images with the war experience. However, in case of Korea,
which experienced the Pacific War and the Korean War, there were few
paintings which dealt with this.
Due to the violent social upheaval that Korean artists experienced asa result of the Korean War, their choice of apolitical artistic styles andsubject matters and their interest in formalistic Cubism comes as no
surprise . Precisely because there was so much political , cultural andideological confusion after the war , Korean artists tried to disengage fromsocial and political concerns in their art.
Some of the paintings in the 1950s by Park Re-hyun and Kim
Whan-ki found refuge in pure painting and modern formalism. I can only
say this as the case of Korean art. Artists in other countries may havereacted differently. So it is hard to apply one frame of interpretation

toworks from different social and political background.
Moderator (Matsumoto):

We are already running out of time, but I would

like to ask the two who raised their hands to respond briefly.
Tanaka: I would like to answer Professor Kim's question. Regarding Park
Re-hyun , I think it is important to note that she was a female painter. In
my reading, through Freud and through my own observation , the way inwhich we see the work is already biased by gender. In other words, thereason I selected specific works for my presentation may reflect the part32 1

that gender plays in my accepting these works. In dealing with female
aritsts, there is a criticism against Freudian theory itself to the effect that it
is biased by gender, because the issue at hand cannot be dealt with simply
by discussing casteration anxiety, and thus calls for careful examination.
So, I have a question to Professor Kim in return. I would like to know thebackground or the social context that explains why so many mother andchi ld images were produced after the Korean War. It may be possible toexplore a national ideology at play, as the situation may be similar to thatof Europe after the First World War, when many works portraying motherand child were produced. These images of a mother nurturing a childemerged during the years after a war when the nations were trying torebuild. Perhaps the ideology that supports women 's roles was also being
reinforced.
Moderator (Matsumoto): You're refering to government policy?
Tanaka: Yes.Setting Freud aside, I am int erested in how a kind ofideological issue may have occurred.
Moderator (Matsumoto): So, do you have anything to say regarding theportrayal of mother and child?
Kim: In the 1950s, the Korean government was trying to persuade people
not to have too many babies. Before, four or five children in one family
were not unusual. But as government pushed the family plan with slogans
such as "two is enough;"three

is too much; the number of children

began to decline sharply. I understand the family plan worked very
successfu lly in Korea. So, I don't think it really has anything to do withgovernment policy at the time. It has to do more with the absence of men
and the breakdown of large families. And the mother became the centerof the family.
Moderator (Matsumoto): To apply Freud or other theories, I think weneed to be informed in details about the background of the artworks.
Now, can we have our final comment from Professor Winther-Tamaki?
Winther-Tamaki: Professor Hayashi commented that Les Demo1selles

d'Avignonis exceptional in the context of Cubism and in some ways this isquite true. Yet Yve-Alain Bois wrote that the whole Cubist movement wasa deferred response to the trauma of this painting. If we think of Cubism
very narrowly, limiting Cubism to what came immediately after Les
Demotsellesd'Avignon,then the expressive violence of this painting may

322

seem irrelevant to C ubi sm .
But m aybe th en we are not seein g C ubi sm's large r hi sto ricalsignific ance. Les Demoisellesd'Avignonand Guernicawere Picasso's m ost
influ enti al paintin gs. Restri ctin g "real C ubi sm" to its form al, rat io nal andanalytical aspects and erasing its m essy irrat io nal im pul ses causes us tolose sight o f som e o f th e larger histo rical co nsequ ences of C ubi sm formodernit y. C ubi sm tri ggered Sur rea lism in a way. The C ubi sm th at we seein Asia certa inly does have th ese menacin g qu alities and I wo uld hesitate
to m argin alize th at dim ensio n of C ubi sm fro m th e di scussio n .
Haya s hi: I full y agree. Saying th at it is an "excepti o n" m ay have been too
stro ng a wor d. Th ank you for follow in g up o n my co mm ent.
Moder ator (Mats umoto): We shall now take a brea k.

323

Session 4"Narrative/Myth/Religion"
A representative characteristic of Cubist styles in Asia ~ s that they
were applied to works of art with subject matter from religion, myth,or local folklore. Simply stated, it might be said that th~ as adiversion of Cubism to narrative iconography. Considering tnat
Cubism in the West emerged through an exploration of anti-narrative
painting, this application can be described as an adaptation of Cubismthat denies or betrays its original intention. Thinking about why it
developed in this way should be a useful way of bringing out the
special features of the reception of Cubism in Asia. One issue that is
likely to emerge from this discussion is the common ch!1;acteristics of.
Cubism where it emerged as a secondary tendency in regions otherthan Asia, including Europe. With respect to formal iss,M.~, for example,
there may be a discussion of how the multi-faceted trea\lTJent of theA.
pictorial surface in Cubism was diverted to narrative expressio
3~---~
more broadly, we may want to discuss what type of narratives tended tobe the subject matter , or which social classes formed the audience. The
discussion will undoubtedly lead to issues that are completely different
from those in the European context. We hope that the debate in
Session 4, building on the achievements of previous sessions, will leadto more universal horizons.
Moderator: Tsuji Shigebumi
Presentation I Asian Cubism and "Narrative"
Ushiroshoji Masahiro
Presentation 2

Presentation 3 Narrative Cubism
Tatehata Akira
Discussion (Q&A )Wrap-upHayashi Michio

JI

Session 4 - Presemation 1

Asian Cubism and "Narrative"
Ushiroshoji Masahiro[Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Kyushu University]

As Mr. Tatehata Akira said in his keynote presentation at the beginning ofyesterday's session , even if we can find pioneering examples of Cub ism inAsia in the 1910s and 1920s, conditions were not yet in place there ,leaving aside a few exceptional regions, to receive Western modern art. It
was not until the 1930s that the buds of modernism , including Cub ism,began to appear in many different Asian regions. During th e 1940s, Asia
was ravaged by the storms of war, which hindered the growth of thesebuds. The app licat ion of Cubism in Asia reached a peak in the 1950s after
the Pacific War came to an end.
It was a time when new nation-states were emerging, or attempts
were being made to form states with prospects for the future all over Asia,
starting new after overcoming the postwar instab ility and colonial
domination. The period in which Cubism emerged coincided with thebuilding of nation-states system. "Nations" were established , "nationallang uage s" were created, a shar ed "history" was produced , "national
territories " were observed , "trad ition s" were investigated, and "national
identity" was exp lor ed. It could be said that the age of "Asian Cubism" wasmarked by th e age of the "nation'. 'The fourth session , "Narrat ive / Myth / Religion; is described as follows in
the program: "A representative character istic of Cub ist styles in Asia wasthat they were applied to works of art with subject matter from religion ,myth, or local folklore ...... Cons ider ing that Cubism in the West emerged
through an exploration of anti-narrative painting , this app licat ion can be
described as an adaptation of Cubism that deni es or betrays its origina lintention ~ The issues presented for discussion include the question of
how a Cubist stylistic language was used to express narrative , what sort ofnarratives were used as subject matter , and to which social class theaudience belonged.
I believe there are certa in facts that form the premises for this
discussion. Modern art in Asia made use of the doctrines of modernism ,the pursuit of the autonomy of the work of art and a pur e forma lism , but
at the same time it showed a strong tendency toward narrative andsymbolism. In other words , a desire or inclination to tell a story often
outweighed autonomy and formalism. This also app lies to examp les of art
employing a Cubist style. I have been involved in a few exhibitions with a
326

Ushiroshoji Masahiro

similar understandingof these issues, and I would say that this under-

standing of the narrative and anti-formalist qualities of the modern art ofAsia is widely shared in the region.
It is comparatively easy to find th e sources of these narrative
qualities in the rich legacy of past visual expression in Asia. Even today,
there are numerous examples that clearly indicate that this tradition of
narrative art is not lost. Even in Islamic countries, where worshipping
idols is expressly forbidden , traditions of visual narrative overcome, or
coexist with , the Islamic prohibitions. The narrative miniatures produced
today in Pakistan are obvious examples. There are also stories told in thealmost excessively decorative rickshaws that race through the city of
Bangladesh.
I would like to start by answering the question: "What is thecharacter of the narratives that are being used as study matter ?"First , I would like to call attention to a painting presenting acommon, ordinary scene,At the Kampung Shop (fig.J ) by Mohammed
Salehuddin. A Malay Muslim family has come to shop in a store run by
one of the many Chinese who live on the Malay Peninsula. An immigrantfrom southern India are walking on the street outside. It is a "politicallycorrect" picture that might be seen with some irony today, but the artist
put very sincere feeling into this work at the time he painted it. It is not a
Cubist painting , but I have referred to it because I wane to explore theattitudes and issues involved in works of art of the period when Cubism
fig. I: Mohammed Salehuddin. At the
Kamp1111g
Sbop, 1959, oil on canvas

was practiced in Asia.
Here is one more painting that is unrelated to Cubism. It shows aclassroom, another very mundane scene. However, if we think about thecontext of Singapore at the time it was painted , from the 1950s to theearly 1960s, people of varied ethnicities living in British Malaya and thesurrounding

regions were engaged in a trial and error process of develop-

ing what would ultimately be an independent

people 's state , coming

rogether and separating in different ways. The Mala y teacher in thepainting is working in the midst of this situation, teaching national
language, Malay to Chinese whose native language is Chinese. It is
impossible to ignore the politics of this picture and the ideas that theartist has put into it.
As I mention ed at th e beginning, Cubism in Asia was introduced
against the background of a great historical turning point, the formationof nation-states. Therefore , the stories told and the symbols pai need there
were related to the social concern of forming a nation and the search fornational identity.
Most of the countries of Asia achieved independence

in the 1950s,

and drew national borders that are more or less th e same today. This fact
is connected to the negative legacy of the colonial system that was inplace from the 19th to the 20th century. The tendency to form certain327

groupings is what Benedict Anderson has described in his book , Imagined
Communities, and in man y Asian countries , filled with a variety of ethnic
groups and ethnicities , art had ro take the role of cultivating a national
consciousness and supporting the newl y emerging unit y of the nation 's
people. Through painting , "history" became shared (the mural at Manila
City Hall by Carlos Francisco and Juan Luna, "BloodCompact" by Vicente
Manansala , fig.2 ), "national lands " and "the nation " were newly discovered , and religion and myths were discussed in new ways as a basis fornational identity.

fig.2: Vicente Manansala, Juan Luna,"BloodCompact,"1962,oi l on canvas

This may explain how the art of a certain period formed a national
narrative, showing a close relation with the social context in which the art
was born. The modern art of Asia was involved in a search for national
identity, reflecting the historical background of the formative period ofnation-states. However , it does not explain why Cubism was particularly
chosen for this purpose; why the style had to be Cubism. Unless we
examine this, we cannot answer the question at hand. We would have todraw the conclusion that Cubism just happened to be the art movementthat appeared during the high tide of nationalism around the time ofindependence of Asian nations.
I would like to consider why Cubism in particular became connected to
the narratives of Asian painting.
I believe that several reasons have already been given in the courseof this symposium. First, it has been mentioned that the multi-faceted
viewpoint of Cubism was suited to telling a story, opening up greater
narrative possibilities. When many viewpoints coexist in one painting , itis possible to combine a number of different narrative sequences.
This point recalls the multiplicity of viewpoints contained by the
traditional painting styles and structures of Asia (concrete examples
include the picture scrolls of Japan and the Northern Song landscapes ofChina ). Before the mixing of multiple viewpoints in one painting
appeared as a characteristic of Cubism it was already a feature of styles ofpainting traditionally cultivated in Asia. In long horizontal compositions ,the narrative is developed by shifting the point of view and grouping
images. This traditional form of composition may have served as animportant foundation for telling stories in art when Asian painting

328

encountered Cubism (fig.3 ).

fig.3: Chia Yu Chlan, Untitled (Village
Scene) , 1959, oil on canvas

At the same time , as I have already mentioned , Asian art during thisperiod was oriented toward establishing a national identit y, and an
energetic effort was being made to explore and rediscover tradition. There
was a tendency in much Asian art to refer to traditional styles andtechniques , painting formats , and esthetic attitudes, mixing or blending
them with modernism. Thus , there is a need to think of multiple
viewpoints in the context of a return to tradition (related to the "national
narrative ").
I would like to show some traditional Chinese painting as examples ,but I hesitate somewhat because I am not prepared right now to show
how the painters of the Malay peninsula (man y of whom received there
art training in Shanghai in the 1930s) studied the history of Chinese
painting , what they took as a standard, and what sort of paintings they
were able to see. I would guess that the y looked at paintings of the late
Qing dynasty. Here I present two well known works as examples.
I would also like to discuss another topic that I mentioned at the
beginning in relation to the issue of Cubism and narrative , the social classof the audience. In th e 19th century, painters who came from Europ e
depicted the unknown ecologies of tropical regions and the "savage"
people who lived in them based on the viewpoint of natural history or
anthropology. Their stance was eventually adopted by local artists who
painted in much the same way, and their approach was passed on in th e
production of much souvenir art. Soedjojono , known as the father ofIndonesian modern painting , dealt with this situation in a famous essay,"Paintings in Indonesia: The Present and the Futur e;' in 1939. He
passionately advocated painting that is not dir ecte d at an audience of"to urists " or "Dutch travelers on a pen sion " but "shows th e world" or"society" th e "healthy, exhilarating new ideals" that have "arisen from oureveryday lives'.' The "Indonesia " referred to by Soedjojono did not yet
exist historically. He was speaking about a nation that was than risingfrom th e darkn ess of the Dutch East Indian colonies. He had an early
perception of how th e audience for painting would change from touri sts
to "the people of the nation'.'The embryonic movements of mod ern art that began to appear inmany Asian countries in the 1930s were opposed to romantic landsc ape

329

paintings filled with an exotic atmosphere and coquettish female images.
This tendency was not peculiar to Indonesia but was seen to a lesser orgreater extent in other countries as well. Soedjojono himself advocated astance of confronting reality and developing an individual sense of beauty
in order to move beyond tourist paintings and idealized landscapes but
did not promote a specific style such as Cubism. Speaking with reference
to yesterday 's presentations, it may have been the result of kagunan, but
most of the young artists who responded

tothis call later came to use

Cubism. Cubism rejected the easy acceptance of exoticism. It broke down
the naturalist worldview that takes the form of a unified visual image andencouraged artists to restructure the world subjectively and intellectually.
Patrick D. Flores noted the similarity between Cubist motifs and theactual cityscapes composed of cubic structures created by the temporary
housing called barongbarongthat proliferated in the recovery that
followed the death and destruction of war. Looking at Asia as a whole, it
seems possible that a similar statement could be made about othercountries, including India and Korea. I would like to close my presentation with the observation that the formal language of Cubism fit thespirit of an age of destruction and revival, rejection and creation.
(Translated by Stanley N . Anderson )330

Session 4 - Presentati o n 2

Cubist Aesthetics and Narrative Strategies
in Postrevolutionary Mexican Art
Karen Cord ero Reiman[D isting uished Professor, Art Hisrory Dep artment, Unive rsidad lberoamer icana}This talk will focus on the ways in which Cubism was appropriated inearly 20th century Mexican art and th e manners in which its aesthetic
contributions were adapted to the artistic and political context of
postrevolutionary Mexico , in several of the proposals for the constructionof a modern Mexican art which were advanced in the 1920s and '30s. ' In
particular , it will focus on the use of Cubist aesthetics as the basis for
new narrative strateg ies for the presentation of history and theresign ification of mythological , religious and dail y life iconography inthis context.
While, initially, the invitation to participate in this sympos ium
Karen Cordero Reimanbrought to my mind specific cases of interchange between artists ofAsian origin and the postrevolutionary Mexican context - for example
the work of Kitagawa Tamiji in relation to the Open Air Art Schools andthe 1936 mural by lsamu Noguchi in the Mercado Abelardo Rodrigu ez- and, indeed, my reading and research in preparation for this event
have been helpful in contextualizing their work in new ways, the revisionof the conceptual proposals of the exhibition and the congress invite
attention to broader issues.
The images and catalogue essays of the exhib ition "Cubism in Asia:
Unbounded Dialogues ; suggest both significant parallelisms anddifferences with the Mexican experience , and have been revealing to me ,as a scho lar whose backgro und includes a limit ed knowl edge of modern
Asian art , with regard to comparisons and contrasts which can be drawn
regarding the reception of Cubism outside of Europe. As in Asia, theexperience of Cub ism was the subject of selective appropriation by artists
working in Mexico ; it was resignified in many cases, both in its formal
aspects and its contextual reception, with regard to th e specific aesthetic
and socio-cu ltu ral concerns of postrevolutionar y Mexico. This was thecase, both with those artists - such as Diego Rivera and Angel Zarraga- who had direct contact with Cubism during th e years of its gestat ion
and development , and with those who came into contact with Cubism
later or in a mediated fashion - such as Fermin Revueltas, other artists
associated with the Estridenti sta movement ,Jose Clemente Orozco ,Rufino Tamayo , Frida Kahlo and photographers such as Agustin Jim enez
and Manuel Alvarez Bravo. At the same time , verbal discourse influenced by Cubism accompanied its introduction into the Mexican milieu ,33 Iboth as a vehicle for the promotion and defense of new aesthetic
strategies , as in the manifestos published by David Alfaro Siqueiros andthe writings of Diego Rivera, and as a means of echoing new visualstrategies in Iiterary, poetic terms.
As was the case in Asia, according the catalog essayists of "Cubism
in Asia: Unbounded Dialogues ; in the Mexican experience the conceptual definition of Cubism stretches and blurs its boundaries and acquires
new configurations which perhaps require new nomenclature . This
semantic issue is part of a more general debate on terminology which isalive and well in the discussion of the appropriation and hybridization offoreign stylistic elements in Latin American art. Here , however , given
our time restrictions , I will deal with the visual and conceptual characteristics of these appropriations , which include aspects not only of thevarious stages and aspects of Cubism , but also of Futurism, Orphism andother related currents.
Aesthetic Renovation
The revolutionary, deconstructive aspects of Cubism, which allowed theintegration of new multi-perspectival perceptual models and thecompression of different temporal moments into a single, simultaneous
image, were taken up by Mexican artists as a means of signifying
modernity and creating images which underline the desire to created a
new image of Mexico and its art in the context of the efforts to reconstruct a national aesthetic and imaginary in the wake of the social,economic and political fragmentation provoked by the armed struggle.
Significantly , however , the formal contributions of Cubism also provided
a vehicle , in Mexican art , for addressing the contradictions which arose
between European models of modernity and the realities of a nation
with a still primarily rural economy and incipient processes of mechanization. Works by Rufino Tamayo of the 1920s and '30s respond to thissituation by focusing insistently on artifacts of modernity such as thelight bulb and the phonograph as subjects of metaphysical and formal
contemplation and reconfiguration in still life compositions, rather thanthe more traditional tabletop scenarios explored in European Cubism.
The reception of Cubism revealed in a number of works produc ed
during and following the armed struggle of the second decade of the
century, also makes specific reference, however , to aspects associated withpre-modern or artesanal technology, in the context of spatial andtemporal constructions which catapult perception into the realm of
relativism and simultaneity. This is the case of several Cubist works
produced by Diego Rivera in Paris in the second decade of the century
where , in a similar manner to Russian contemporaries , he incorporates
the geometric patterns of woven serapes - a reference to the use of"popular art " as a source for renovated aesthetic proposals both for
33 2

artistic and political reasons - during the years while the battle between
diverse "revolutionary" factions was still in process (fig. l ).
Several works by Fermin Revueltas impose modernist compositional vehicles as well on scenes of work in rural Mexico, recalling asimilar dynamic in paintings produced in areas with related economic
situations , such as the Russian painter Malevich's The Knife Grinder( 1912). Likewise, the process of incorporation of Cubist aesthetics in
Mexican photography of the 1920s and '30s - in large part , through the
fig . I: Diego Rivera, PaisajeZapatista(Zapatista Landscape), 1915,oil oncanvasinfluence of the Mexican production of Edward Weston -often takes

place in works where the subject matter alludes to the persistence oftraditional visual culture and modes of production , alongside references
to industrial transformation of this realm.
The graphic component of the movement known as Estridentismo ,however , is perhaps one of the cases where the reconfiguration of suchapparent discursive contradictions is clearest. In the early 1920s, as
Mexico attempted to reestablish centralized State power with recourse tocultural politics as one of its primary arms , the group of poets and visua lartists associated with the Estridentista movement took recourse to
Cubism as a means of asserting their avant-garde identity, in collective
portraits which represented the group in its cafe encounters, using thevisual strategies of Analytic Cubism (fig. 2). At the same time, theirwritten proclamations incorporated clear references to Futurism, in theirstrident criticism of bourgeois complacency and established traditions
and institutions, and their call for a cosmopolitan , industrial ideal ,promoting an urban utopia which had never existed in Mexico.
In the visual manifestations of Estridentismo - primarily illustrations in the magazines and volumes of poetry edited by the literaryprotagonists of the movement - however , there is little evidence of the

fig.2 : Ram6n Alva de la Cana l, El Cafide Nadie (Nobody 's Cafe), seco ndversion, 1930,oll and collage on

Futurist cult to velocity, but the European movement 's idealization of themetropolis and the concept of internal and environmental dynamism ,reflected through the simultaneous evocation of sensory and spatial
experiences , are adapted to local circumstances. In particular , theEstridentistas take up the Futurist use of Analytic Cubism -combiningfragments of diverse realities in evocative , poetic compositions; thissimultaneist perspective had previously had a limited impact in Mexican
circles , which were dominated , rather , by the neo-Classical spirit, morecommon , by the 1920s, among the Parisian avant-gard e.
The covers of Estridentista publications , demonstrate a creative andaggressive use of typography . The graphic production of the movement
refers consistently to symbols of industrial modernity:
fig.3:Jean C harlot,Retrato psico/6gicode Manuel MaplesArce {Psychologicalportrait of Manuel Maples Arce),
cover of the magazine Ser: revista
intemnciona/de vanguard/a, Nos. 7-8.
Puebla, I92 1

radios , scaffold-ing , skyscrapers ...indicators of cultural and material change reflecting
the intent to recreate the sensorial complexity of the city, with its
bombardment of visual and auditory information (fig. 3 ).
The visual and literary images of Estridentismo, however , are333marked by a "primitivism " which lends the movement a handmad e,artesanal seal. References to the "barbaric " vein in Latin American
culture in the poetry of the movement find their visual equiva lent in theextensive use of the wood and linocuc, absent in European Futurism ,with a deliberatel y rough technique in which th e pr esence of the gestureof the artist 's hand is underlined; probably , chis reflects the impact ofSouth American derivatives of Futurism , link ed with the ArgentinianMartinfierrisca movement, particularl y the woodcuts of Norah Borges.
German Cueto, a scu lp tor related to the Escridentisca group, explores
simi lar formal ideas in the same period through a ser ies of makes , and a
Cubiscic tehuana in which che traditional massivicy of sculpture gives
way to planar slippage.
Cub ism and the Narrative Strategies of Mural ism
The recourse to the devices of Analytical Cubism as a vehicle whichfragments in a prismatic fashion the traditional post-Renaissance unit y oftime and space , is concurrent , however , in th e development of 20th
century Mexican art , with the appropriationof Synthetic Cubism's moreconstructive, accumu lative process and the spirit of "neo-Cla ssical"
Cubism which in Europe, as Kenneth Silver has shown in EspritDe

Corps,' reveals th e desire to m end divisions and reconstruct identities , inthe period fo llowing the First World War. The pertinence of chistendency for Mexican art, responding to a period of internal division
with an attempt to construct a new, modern , national and more soc ially
inclusive mode of visual culture, seems evident. David Alfaro Siqueiros '1921 manif esto , published in Barcelona , shortly before his return to
Mexico , calls upon Latin American artists to prefer a constructive , linear
and geometric aesthetic of prehispanic art -which may be related to some formal aspects

for the production of a new modern visual cu ltur e, 3

and several of the poscrevolutionar y murals of the early and mid-1920s
seem to reflect a response to chis call.
In particular, the political radicalization of muralism during thefinal years of Obregon's regime ( 1923-1924 ) resulted in th e transformation of the idyllic , universalistic allegories which characterized theea rliest postrevolucionary public art int o rural scenes inserted into
concrete socia l and historical realities. Th e grouping of the artists whodeveloped an early series of postrevolucionary mural proposals in th e

Escue/aNacionalPreparatoriainto the Sindicatode ObrerosTecnicos, Pintoresy Escultores(Union of Technical Workers , Painters and Sculptors ),associated with working class movements and an incipient socialise
ideolog y, led gradually to a co llective concern with producing an art
with more dir ect soc ial consequences, thus distancing the artists fromearlier proposal s of a spiritual nationalism. The political and artistic
lead ership of Diego Rivera was a key element in this process , and - not334

surprisingly -it is in his extensive mural program in the Ministry of

Public Education , where this transformation

can be most clearlyobserved.
French emigre Jean Charlot 's rendering of the Battle of Tenochtitlanon the basis of careful geometric structuring and incorporating

mecha-

nisms of temporal compression , was surely an important model for thetransformationof Rivera's work , and a mediating factor for his renewedreference to his Cubist antecedents as the basis for a distinctive narrativ econstruction.
Rivera 's paintings on the first level of the government building,begun in 1923, reveal close ties to the decorative exaltation of popular
traditions and everyday rural life, but modulate its representation with acarefully controlled interplay of formal poetics. El baiioen Tehuantepec(Tehuantepec Bath ) painted at the e ntranc e to th e elevators, for instance,
reveals a carefully calibrated rhythmic composition , which celebrates theexoticism and sensuality of its subject matter , while transforming thelabors of these quintessential mestizo women into a ritualistic dance (fig.
4 ). The influence of Rivera's Cubist formation in the geometric, self..
referential structuring of these panels is paramount, as is the use of
biblical parallels to aid in the didactic and moralistic interpretationofthe narrative scenes. In La salldade la mlna (The Exit from the Mine ), forexample , the com penetration of layers of significance facilitated by
Cubist composition allows the conflation of a reference to religious
martyrdom and contemporarysocial injustice.

Nevertheless, the characteristics of Rivera's murals on the second
and third levels of the Education Ministry : compositions saturated with
figures, located vertically in carefully organized apertures , so as tofig.4: Diego Rivera, El Baiiode
Telmantepee (Tehuantepec Bath), ca.
1923, frescoguarantee narrative readability, and linked horizontally in a dynamic
political narrative , are those which define not only his personal style , but
the dominant tonic of the mural movement during the following
decades. His ability to combine picturesque , anecdotal details ; legible
theoretical constructs which link narrative groupings in a broader
ideological and historical discourse ; and th e curvilinear contours which
dominate his work , suggesting an overall harmonic resolution in spite ofthe dialectical counterpoints

which inform his compositions, help tomake Rivera 's work an ideal model for the "graphic design of the
Revolution'.' Here , and in his works of the following decades, Rivera's
Cubist antecedents serve him in two ways: they aid him in the handlingof complex compositional

structures which maintain their clarity inspite of the compressed spatial presentation of narrative elements , andthey allow the temporal compression of different moments in Mexican
history in order to construct a symbolic narrative , closer to myth than tohistory , which establishe s metaphorical, rather than causal , relationships
between historical processes of the Mexican past , present and future , in335

terms influenced by sources as apparently diver se as Marxism and
Masonic doctrin e (fig.5 ).

fig.5: Diego Rivera,M!xicoen la historia(Mexico in Historical Perspective), 19291935, fresco

Variations in this same sense , though perhaps with a less compl ex
narrative structure, can be found in the changes in the use of Cubism in
the work of Ang el Zarraga, although much of his mural and easel
production took plac e in Europe.
These bri ef example s sugg est, I hope , some of th e ways in which theprocesses of reception of Cubism in Mexico and in Asia reflect tendencies and patterns which seem to be transcultural , refl ecting their obliqueposition -aesthetically and socio-historically -in relationship to therefer ences of the European mov ement. At th e same time , they make usaware that the analytic usefulne ss of stylistic categories is as much or
more in the marking and analysis of differenc es and ambiguities as in
the confirmation of similarities.

Notes:
I. Fora more comprehensive revision of these proposals,see my essay"Constructinga Modern Mexican Art, 1910-1940~
in James Oles, et al., Southofthe Border:Mexicoin the AmericanImagination1914-1947 (New Haven and Washington,
D.C.: Yale University Art Gallery and Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993 ), pp. 10-47.
2. Kenneth E. Silver, EspritDe Corps:TheArt eftbe ParisianAvant-Gardeand the FirstWorldWar,19I 4-1925 (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1992).
3. David Alfaro Siqueiros,~Tresllarnamiemosde orientaci6n actual a los pintores y escultures de la nueva generaci6n
americana,.in Raquel Tibol, ed., Palabrasde Siqueiros(Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica. 1996), pp. 17-20.

336

Session 4 - Presentation 3

Narrative Cubism
Tatehata Akira[Directo r, The Nat io nal Museum of Art, Osaka]

I have already given my general views in the keynote presentation. Here I
would like to add to the discussion in this session in response to thepresentations of the other panelists. Cubism certainly has the character of aformal language , but this does not necessarily mean that it must oppose or
reject narrative elements. Rather, I believe it has functioned as a device toarouse them. Some examples that would support this point of view include
the facets used to divide the picture vertically, which I talked about in myprevious presentation , and the Transparent Cubism that I will discuss here.

Tatehata Akira

Clement Greenberg referred to the monochrome facets in Picasso'sAnalytic
Cubism as "illusion with comparatively shallow depth~ Certainly, thesefacets were not flat but treated with gradations of light and dark, giving a
sense of depth by means of diagonal movement in various directions.
In contrast, Cubist facets in Southeast Asia and South Asia, withsome exceptions, are generally filled in with flat color. In these regions,the facets are treated in a different way as a method of flat color division.
The so-called Sinigang Cubism, or Transparent Cubism, of Vicente
Manansala of the Philippines is mostly monochrome and has theillusion of depth. This depth is created by overlapping a number of semitransparent layers of color. The facets themselves are not diagonallyoriented. Furthermore, it is questionable whether we should see thedivided color areas of Sinigang Cubism as "facets~ Depending on one's
point of view, it might be said that a visual effect similar to Cubist facetsis created by the overlapping edges of these layers (fig. l ). (I might add
that, according to Professor Ushiroshoji, sinigangis a type of Philippine
soup. Thus, Sinigang Cubism simply refers to a local form of Cubism. If
it were expressed in Japanese, it would be misosoup Cubism. )This means that Asian Cubism does not depend on multiplicity ofviewpoint but lets multiple spaces exist in juxtaposition on the sameplane or as multiple layers. If this pluralism reflects a temporal character,
Cubism comes to function as a container of narrative elements.
Another example of Transparent Cubism is the BeijingOperaseries(fig.2 ) of Lin Fengmian of China. This subject matter was popular at thetime , so it is thought to be somewhat compromising on the part of the

fig.I: Vicente Manansala,Conquistador,
1979, watercolor on paper

artist. It may not be the best example of Lin's work, but it is worth
looking closely at the depiction of the actress 's costume. The layering of337

space in veil-like semi-transparent layers creates the effect of elegant
dance movement. That is, sequential images are presented as simultaneous images with this layered kind of depth. Yet, it is different from thework of the Futurists because · it is not an expression of dynamic movement. Rather , it recreates the atmosphere of a theatrical scene.
The simultaneous existence of multiple points of time is contradictory in terms of ordinary ideas of time. Therefore , without a common
understanding that induces a narrative reading among the audience,time would not operate as time. That is, narrative Cubism is based on thepremise of commonly shared knowledge of a community. Naturally , themost typical case of this is found in a nation (imaginary community )sharing a common mythology or religion. As Professor Ushiroshoji
points out , the Cubist paintings of South and Southeast Asia were mostly
produced during the period when these countries were gaining independence from colonial status , so its narrative elements , religious andmythical, contribute to the formation of national identity in many cases.
We need to consider that a temporal interpretation of Cubism is, infact, not a special interpretation or twisting of Cubism , but a capability
inherent to Cubism. Albeit Asian Cubists may or may not have recognized this conceptual implication. But the fact that they referred mainly
to Salon Cubism and Orphism demonstrates that the attitude of anarrative reading of simultaneous space should not be described as adeparture from the original context of Cubism.
As Professor Tsuji pointed out , an ambiguous relationship between
sequential and simultaneous states is an issue of modernist painting in
general. A certain aspect of Asian Cubism seems to reflect the essence of
Cubism as a "container of flexible possibilities ~ Cubism is a great knotthat brings together various aspects of modern art, so its character as aformal language tends to be emphasized. If we emphasize what was done
outside of the pure experiments of Picasso and Braque , however , there ismuch room left for interpretations based on Reflectionism.
With respect to the problem of the audience , it is possible to pointout a variety of other features. The subjects of agricultural societies , city
slums , and wartime experiences in Cubist paintings are related to ananti-colonialist agenda in many cases, and they convey direct andindirect messages to certain communities.
In fact, the style did not have to be Cubism. However , as I stated in
my keynote speech, Fauvism and Surrealism also had elements that weremore or less responsive to traditions found in many regions of Asia,
whereas , Cubism was entirely a sign of the Other. It had an invigorating
effect, opening up new possibilities for narrative that might otherwise
have fallen into cliche .
(Translated by Stanl ey N. And erson )338

fig.2: Un Fengmian,OperaFigures,
early 1950s,ink and color on paper

Session 4

Discussion

Moderator (TsujiShigebumi): Since we now approach the grand finale ofthe symposium, I would like to ask for your further patience andcooperation. Mr. Tatehata 's commentary covered not on ly the topic of
Session 4, but also provided us with a prospect for this symposium ingenera l, as it touched on issues concerning formal development , contents ,nationalism and ideology . Professor Ushiroshoji and Professor Cordero 'spresentations also covered issues related to the reception of Cubi sm inAsia. Professor Cordero, in particular , informed us about the reception of
Cub ism in Mexico, which could be understood as a prelude to or aprecondition of the introduction of Cubism in Asia. The previous
discussion has illumin ated many issues connected to Cubism in Asia. As
we proceed with our discussion, I sha ll welcome questions that refer not
only to Session 4 but also to the other sessions. I wou ld also like toencourage questions from the floor in the latter part of our session. Anyquestions or comments?
Bert Winther-Tamaki:

I found Professor Cordero's discussion on Mexican

paintings and Cubi sm to be very interesting and useful. I applaud theorganizers for including discussion of Mexican Cubism in the discussionof Asian Cubism. But there was an odd transition when we moved from
Professor Cordero to Mr. Tatehata, because Mr. Tatehata was focusing on
the Asian-ness of Asian Cubism, looking again at Transparent Cub ism
and vertical compositional formations or the Vertical Fragmentation. I
wondered whether Asian Cubism is someth ing that we can specifica lly
say is not Mexican Cubism. If we cannot make this claim, maybe "postco lonial Cubism" wou ld be a more int ellectua lly sound rubric than "Asian
Cubism'.' I wonder if the presence of Mexico in this symposium
problematizes the concept of Asia in this respect?
Karen Cordero: I think there are very significant differences , but what I
do see as a comparative element is the kind of nationalization of theavant-garde and selective ways of using Cubism. One of the conclusions
which I have reached in seeing the exhibition and looking at thesedifferent presentations , is that Cubism isn't appropriated in Asia or in
Mexico , so much as a lan guage. Rather , it became a subversive moment339

which opened up different possibilities for seeing a representation.
What we are seeing is the ways in which these possibilities are taken
up in ways which sometimes have a formal similarity with Cubism, but
often using the formal devices of Cubism in very different ways. So,
perhaps we could see it as a field of action or of reverberations orconsequences of Cubism in different areas , in which Cubism, or theeffects of Cubism are used selectively for purposes which may have little
or nothing to do with the original intentions of its European manifestation.
Moderator (Tsuji): Could I ask Professor Ushiroshoji to make comments
in response to Professor Cordero's comments on how Cubism wasincorporated into nationalism or put under postcolonial conditions?
Ushiroshoji Masahiro: I would say that these are issues specific to
Cubism, and that Cubism played a particular role. Cubism was appropriated by accident. If Cubism was completely an abstract language, it would
not have been an appropriate framework to fit the national narrative . Yet
naturalism-based realistic representation could not represent modernity
and its zeitgeist. I think Cubism was an inevitable choice at the time,
given the background of its foundation.
Moderator (Tsuji): Mr. Tatehata, please.
Tatehata Akira: I would like to speak on behalf of the organizers, and tell
you the several reasons why we wanted Professor Cordero to speak about
Cubism in Mexico. In examining Cubism outside of the West European
sphere, we were interested in the movements , such as the case in New
York, where four or five Cubists worked together on Park Avenue andorganized exhibitions, or in Poland, where there are Cubist architecture.
We were inter ested in them in looking at the periphery , but the Cubist
movement in Mexico attracted our attention in particular , so we were
eager to refer to it as we discussed Cubism in Asia. First of all, theMexican mural movement had a significant influence on the Japan ese
Cubist movement. Secondly, the Mexican case provided us with interesting ways of observing the relationship between the timing of independenc e and emergence of Cubism. The Cubist movement in Mexico seems
to have a very close commonality with the Cubist movement in thePhillipines. Did Diego Rivera ever visit the Philippines ? Such inquirie s
were on our mind , although we were careful not to over-estimate theinfluences resulting from exchanges between specific individuals.
Naturally, as I listened to Professor Cordero, I found commonalities

340

and differences between the Cubist movement in Mexico and Asia.
Cubism 's strong links with the socialist movement made it quite different
from the Asian context. Also, I mentioned the primitive attributes ofAsian Cubism in my keynote speech, but primitive attributes in Mexican
Cubism seem closely tied to its folk artforms in a way not common in
Asia. This left a strong impression on me.
So these are some of the differences between the cases in Mexicoand Asia, but , for example, the woodblock prints from the Estridentista
movement reminded me of Lu Xu n's New Woodcut Movement in China .
Professor Cordero , can you comment on the role of woodblock prints inthe Estridentista movement and the Cubistic influence which was also
seen in the Chinese printworks 'Moderator (Tsuji): So, Professor Cordero, can you couch upon the
woodblock prints briefly?
Cordero: I hope I remember the woodcuts clearly. I think they were more
specific representations related to social protest.
Tatehata: Yes,the Chinese woodcut movement was directly related tosocial protest and education to enhance revolutionary momentum.
Cordero: I think there 's a similar use of the diagonals to break up space.
Bue in the case of the Chinese woodcuts, I think there are many morelines of force related to the movement of the human figure , which is usedin other aspects of Mexican muralism , but not particularly in the
Estridentista movement. Estridentismo rarely represents the humanfigure , but rather technology, urban culture and architecture , and so on. If
human figures are present , they are usually broken down in the mannerof Analytic Cubism as in these cafe scenes. However, the idea of using thewoodcut as a very direct form of expression with a high contrast between
black and white that assures the graphic impact of these force lines andthe dynamic quality of Cubism , is shared by these two examples.
Moderator (Tsuji): Do you think woodcut was effective for the propaganda of social movements as it was possible to produce multiples?
Cordero: These particular woodcuts of the Estridentista movement are
related to a more poetic and intellectual movement which also had somesocial objectives , but in fact, they did not have much real social impact.
However, later, many of th e same artists who were involved in thismovement continued to use woodcuts , linocuts and other printmaking

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techniques in ensuing graphic movements in Mexico, which were moreclosely related to specific political causes. The best known of these is the

Tallerde GraficaPopular(Popular Graphics Workshop ) which in fact
continues up to this day, but was founded in 1937. However, throughout
the 1920s, there were various graphic movements linked co leftist politicalgroups and associations , like the LEAR, which published their work in
Socialist and Communist magazines. They also created isolated prints as amore accessible means of distributing social propaganda.Jean Charlot
was one of the most important promoters and teachers of woodcut
technique in the 1920s and '30s. Thus prints were very important meansof social and socialist propaganda in Mexico, though they did not always
adopt a Cubistic mode.
Moderator (Tsuji):In the 20th century, woodcut movements unfolded
widely over a long period, so limiting our discussion to its relation to the
Cubist movement may be problematic. But we cannot deny the fact thatwoodcuts played a very important role in the development of Cubism.
This is not only true in Asia, but also in the Estridentista movement. It
also became extremely important for the socialist propaganda. Looking
back in history, woodcut played an important role during the Reformation in the 15th and 16th century, coo. By understanding the contexts ofwoodcuts, we understand the kind of audience that was targeted throughthe Cubist movement and other new movements in the 20th century.
Woodcuts are cheap and easier to reproduce. Therefore , they can beaccessible to a wider audience , beyong the limited circle of the privilegedclass. In relation to this, we couched on the woodcut movement in China.
I wonder if Professor Shen could add anything in regard to the relationship between Chinese woodcuts and Cubism.
Shen Kuiyi: From my presentation , you already know that Cubism
actually did not have a strong influence on the Chinese woodcut
movement. We should say that we can find a few examples of Cubism
among a small group of artists in the early stage of the woodcut movement in the early 1930s.
Later, the Chinese woodcut movement turned into a more revolutionary, or socially concerned movement. Then the modernist tendency
gradually disappeared and it turned into a kind of social propaganda, also
used by different forces in China at that time. Cubism takes only a smallrole in the Chinese woodcut movement.
Moderator (Tsuji):Any comment from a different viewpoint?

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Hayashi Michio: This is a comment, and not a question, on Professor
Winther-Tamaki 's question. When speaking of Transparent Cubism andVertical Fragmentation as unique features of Asian Cubism, as describedby Mr. Tatehata, we need to qualify our observations. We have started our
research in this field only very recently, and we are at a nascent stage
where we are still identifying basic phenomena. We have found that
Manansala in the Philippines produced Cubistic works, and similar works
exist in China and Korea. What does this mean? We are still asking thesevery basic questions. If we were to apply our observations to all of Asia,
we need to be very careful, because we have researched only a limited
number of countries in the region up to this point , and because, forexample, we do not see the same phenomena in India. It may be coincidental that we are finding commonalities, and it may be even a particular
cultural or political context that is driving these phenomena. I think these
are issues to be explored in the future.
Winther-Tamaki: There is, in my previous question , a note of skepticism
about this process that you described. And that is, I am wondering
whether in the process , you are constructing a cultural category of Asia.
Otherwise this is not a category that necessarily has an integrity that 's
separate from places like Mexico and uniformly includes its presumed
Asian contents. I know Professor Clark has done a lot of thinking about
what is Asia and what isn't Asia and so on.
John Clark: I come from the South of Asia, Austral Asia, which is not yet
part of Asia according to some people. And according to others , including
the ''Asians"[also "pink Asians " like myself] in Australia nowadays, it is justa very different part of Asia. I have been thinking that we have put this
discussion about Asian Cubism in a place in our minds , or we think weare talking about a style , talking about a place rather than a discourse andseries of formal questions. The discourse is the Asian discourse. Asia is nota place, it's a kind of possibility that relates cultures which may havegeographical locations associated with nations , but this discourse perhaps
only latently is intended to subversively use the Euramerican model so as
to map what Cubism might be, or to as we have seen here , to cake themapping from the Mexican position today.
Somewhere in the middle of these three overlapping circles is
Cubism. The problem is much more profound. Is there a modernity
which is outside Europe , parallel to European modernity , or in anotherkind of domain in European modernity?
When we map that modernity, we are taking something else ortalking about something in parallel, a different kind of existence. So I

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think that Cubism is not the problem. There is Cubism which is not
Euramerican , and so, do we use Cubism to map what is not Euramaerican
modernity ? That's the problem. That's why Mexico or India or
Kazakhstan , and so on , is relevant.
I've been noticing that we have tracked the following kinds of
distinction from the American set: narrativity or non-narrativity ; mass
and artist; transparency and modeling ; populism against elitism or artistcentered analysis; flattened space against deep space; th e social, thepolitical and religious dimensions or possibilities for deploying Cubism
against secular neutral Western modernization. Obviously, one of thefeatures of Asian Cubist works we've seen is rural subject matter against
quintessentially or paradigmatically urban subject matter , which is where
we think th e European experience comes from. And where all the social
theorists of Western modernity say it comes from , such as MarshallBerman, and so on. For him three cities, St. Petersburg, Paris, and New
York, typify the experience of modernity.
But I know a lot of Malaysian peasants don't think that. I've known
them for about thirty years. The y live in a modern world because they arelistening to transistor radios and are selling their fish on a market
controlled by local Chinese intermediaries. The fish is then transmitted toTokyo where the price differential between what they got from the
Chinese merchant and the price it sold to the customer in Japan in 1976,
when I first saw this, was twenty times. That is a difference of2000%. So,
they indeed know about the modern world, even though they are living
in simp le fishing villages dotted around Southeast Asia.
Finally one may mention the contrast of organicity against
mechanicity. Is there something more organistic about Asian notions oflife as a discourse than the Western modern one ? Or is the contrast
simply one of slow and fast?
All of these ways of mapping modernity are also ways of mapping
Cubism as a stylistic discourse. I think there 's another layer, which is amuch more abstract layer. But we have to start talking about the abstract
layer of difference and its historical contingence, about the functionalityof discourses as ways of representing in different places.
The problem is one about the relevance or non-relevance ofdiscursive teleology to a broad er and more inclusive view of modernities
or of modernisms: the paradigmatic Western location of stylistic discourse is that the rediscovery of the new is itself the purpose of art
innovation . This position about modernity is held in the "West~ regardlessof whether the local situation is different or the same, particularly in"Asian" contexts. So, we have to talk at a much higher level of artistic
problematics than just simply the binary pairs we can all map more-or-344