20 Exhibitions


MODERNISM ON THE GANGES Raghubir Singh Photographs


Dragon in Clouds, Red Mutation: ‘Te version I painted myself in annoyance after Professor Nobuo Tsuji told me, ‘Why don’t you paint something yourself for once?’, 2010, by Takashi Murakami


Dragon and Clouds, 1763, Soga Shohaku, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston


TAKASHI MURAKAMI Lineage of Eccentrics


Unfortunately, eccentrics are ofttimes underrated – or overlooked. Socially, they can be considered unstable and therefore, somehow, unacceptable – that is if one is under the thumb of bourgeois morality. In the American South, however, family eccentrics are a point of social pride and they are both nurtured and encouraged. It is all a matter of perception and it is the same in the world of art. Outside-the-box thinking almost always becomes important junctures in art history, more so as time goes on and people become more removed from the mores at the beginning and are able to see matters without excitable morality. Nothing seems to be more tedious than more of the same. Te question to be raised is just where would art history be without its eccentrics, especially in the field of painting? Asia certainly had its share and the most famous Chinese artist of this style is certainly Bada Shanren. Who cannot be taken with and amused by his paintings of a bird, usually a kingfisher, perched cockily on a lotus stem with a large eye set akimbo. In Japan, Soga Shohaku (1730-1781) certainly takes first place as an eccentric and enigmatic artist, frequently scorned at the time for his revived use of Muromachi style brushwork which was no longer in fashion. He was considered an eccentric, not a flattering name at the time, if not mentally unstable. Muromachi paintings, landscapes and otherwise, made great use of the tonal contrasts created by a heavily-loaded brush, sometimes used as dramatic accents for parts of a composition. Shohaku has never been classifiable to any one school of painting and was very much his own man because of that. Te exhibition opened on 18 October, for a deservedly long run, until 1 April next year. Te display of works by Takashi Murakami, born in 1962, boldly shows a singularly eccentric style that cannot be confused with any other Japanese artist working today. He has most certainly taken up Shohaku’s mantle. And together with Professor NobuoTsuji, has chosen the


ASIAN ART NOVEMBER 2017


objects on view, including three iconic works of art in the MFA’s collection, which he used as subjects of his revised sense on how they can be perceived and dynamically revised. Te original three are Dragon and Clouds, a 1763, thirty-six foot long, eight-fold screen by Soga Shohaku; a Heian Period wood sculpture of the Historical Buddha / Shaka/Shakyamuni; and a Kamakura period handscroll, Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace from the Illustrated Scrolls of the Events of the Heiji Era. In the order above, Murakami’s depictions of the originals range from the recognizable to the semi- recognisable to the completely unrecognisable. His 2010 version of Dragon and Clouds is entitled, humorously,Dragon and Clouds - Red Mutation, ‘Te version I painted myself in annoyance after Professor Nobuo Tsuji told me “Why don’t you paint something yourself for once?”. Executed in red and tones of pink and using strong linear outlines, à la Shohaku, he has created an


image of an almost humorous creature that could almost pass as a Muppet. One step down the recognisable scale is his depiction of the Buddha. He has correctly presumed that the MFA sculpture was probably raised on either double-lotus or architectonic throne and was backed by a glorious nimbus. Murakami’s 2008-2011 silver sculpture Oval Buddha Silver, is raised on a disproportionally tall throne that does resemble a ribbed chalice. Te nimbus, instead of being behind the figure in the traditional manner, is depicted almost like an umbrella, and although unintended, it does resemble a pre-World War II automobile mascot. Te one interpretation than


cannot be explained without knowing what was the original design is the 2009 Lots, Lots of Kaikai and Kiki, a design on a massed field of Kaikai and Kiki heads, the emphasis being on the mass of individual images, rather than the individuals themselves. Knowing that the original inspiration is the MFA’s Kamakura period handscroll, Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace from the Illustrated Scrolls of the Events of the Heiji Era, the connection between the handscroll and Murakami’s version now makes some sort of sense. Te artist deserves kudos


for his remarkable, far- reaching imagination and his ability to have connections with the past that are rarely, if ever, imagined. Martin Barnes Lorber


Oval Buddha Silver, 2008-2011, Takashi Murakami


• Until 1 April, 2018, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, mfa.org


Shaka, the Historical Buddha, late 10th/early 11th century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston


Among the great photographers of the past century, Henri Cartier- Bresson, William Eggleston or Lee Friedlander are the names that generally come to mind. Although a key figure of his time, Raghubir Singh (1942-1999) has so far remained unknown to the wider audience except to a circle of photography enthusiasts. With this exhibition, the Met Breuer is highlighting the work of an artist, who has been a true pioneer when it comes to street photography. Tat is especially true of Singh, as when documenting the vivid life of his native India he decided to use colour films instead of the standard black and white films generally used by his contemporaries to convey the atmosphere in the streets. To Singh, India could only be captured in colour, which is what he did all throughout his career that


Crawford Market, Bombay, Maharashtra (1993) by Raghubir Singh, Chromogenic print, 25.1 x 37.5 cm), purchased gift, 2016, Te Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Te Met Breuer


spanned almost 30 years. Having lived in India, Paris, London and New York, Singh never ceased to capture the colourful nuances of India be this through its busy streets or fantastic landscapes. Featuring around 85 photographs covering his entire career, the exhibition puts Singh’s work into perspective with the one of his contemporaries such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Gedney, or Lee Friedlander, also icons of street photography. Te exhibition evolves around the


tradition of colour in India that Singh embraced whole heartedly which goes back to the miniature paintings of the Mughal period. Te exhibition’s title Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs is based on Singh’s quote when referring to his work as being ‘on the Ganges side of Modernism, rather than the Seine or East River side of it’.


• Until 2 January, 2018, at Te Met Breuer, New York, www.metmuseum.org


JAPAN-NESS AND MORE


While the globalisation of the arts and ideas has smoothed geographical and cultural borders, Japan has retained a very distinctive style, certain facets of which are little known to many. It is this changing singularity, sometimes open and porous to external influences, sometimes withdrawn into itself, often struck by history and nature (conflicts, crises, earthquakes, nuclear disasters) and thus always forced to redefine itself, which is what Centre Pompidou-Metz is highlighting in its Japanese Season. Until May 2018, three exhibitions and a dozen events, concerts, and performances provide new insights into Japan, from its modern history and architecture to its most recent artistic expressions. Japan-ness: Architecture and


Urbanism in Japan since 1945 runs until 8 January. According to the architect Arata Isozaki, Japanese architecture sets itself apart by the immutability of certain values and by an identity that architects have constantly reinterpreted over the centuries. He characterises this distinctiveness, the common theme of the exhibition, with the expression ‘Japan-ness’. Trough the works of Kenzo Tange, Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Kengo Kuma or SANAA, among others, the exhibition questions how the Japanese city, and its sprawling urbanism since the postwar reconstruction, defined new ways of living. Visitors are immersed in an organic city designed by Sou Fujimoto and move through the cyclical history of Japanese architecture, from the destruction of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and


Kenji YANOBE, Atom Suit Project – Desert C-prints by Kenji Yanobe, 4.,8 x 49.8 cm, private collection © Kenji Yanobe © photo : Seiji Toyonaga


Nagasaki in 1945, to its most recent expressions. Te exhibition is based on the Centre Pompidou collection, enriched with works and models from architects’ studios, designers, Japanese museums and private collections, exhibited for the first time on this scale in Europe. Japanorama: New vision on


Art Since 1970 runs until 5 March. Dedicated to the Japanese visual arts since the Osaka Expo in 1970, the exhibition takes a look inside four decades of contemporary art and the affirmation of a visual culture. With a lay-out designed by SANAA like an archipelago, this exploration reveals a multifaceted Japan, not limiting itself to the cliché of the binary opposition of Zen minimalism (Mono-Ha) and surging KawaiiPop. Contemporary art in Japan is also about the poetics of resistance, militant commitment, a common reflection, shared with fashion, on relationships with the body and posthumanism, or on the place of the individual in society, the notion of community, the relationship to an island tradition and


dialogue with subcultures. Together with major figures such as Nobuyoshi Araki, Rei Kawakubo, Tetsumi Kudo, Yayoi Kusama, Daido Moriyama, Takashi Murakami, Tadanori Yokoo, the exhibition invites visitors to discover artists rarely seen outside Japan. Parallel to the exhibition, regular live events will be organised with Japanese contemporary key figures in dance, music, theatre, such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Saburo Teshigawara, Yasumasa Morimura and Ryoji Ikeda. Dumb Type opens 20 January to 14 May. Formed in 1984, Dumb Type was made up of Kyoto City Art College students from different fields, who combined to invent a new, fundamentally pluridisciplinary type of performing art. Active on the international scene, the exhibition examines the mutation of identities and communication in a globalised world dominated by an excess of information and consumption. Sanitised and unrelenting, the technology that proliferates in Dumb Type pieces formats the bodies and challenges the mind. Tis exhibition is the first monographic exhibition of this magnitude in France dedicated to the collective. Centre Pompidou-Metz is presenting five major Dumb Type installations, including one especially created for the exhibition. Archives and testimonies are also presented to retrace the genealogy of the group.


Olivia Sand


• Centre Pompidou-Metz, 1 Parvis des Droits de l’Homme, Metz, France, centrepompidou-metz.fr


Olivia Sand


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