MJHW (Online Meeting) on Pre-War Japanese Avant-Gardes and Migrant Artists - Thursday, January 19th

This month’s session will be held online through Zoom, and can be accessed using the following sign-in information:

Meeting link: https://rikkyo-ac-jp.zoom.us/j/82081558236

The password for the meeting will be posted at the top of the MJHW website from January 16th onwards.

The workshop is open to all, and no prior registration is required.

Please direct any questions to Joelle Nazzicone at joelle.nazzicone@gmail.com.  We hope to see you there!

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Transcending artistic boundaries – Pre-war Japanese Avant-Gardes through the lens of two migrant artists: David Burliuk and Varvara Bubnova

Olga Isaeva (University of Bonn)

This paper will critically address the role two migrant artists David Davidovich Burliuk and Varvara Dmitrejenva Bubnova played in (re)defining the Japanese pre-war avant-gardes during the Taishō period (1912-1926). Careful consideration will be given to the contextually based artistic practice in relation to the specific Japanese history of modernization, the establishment of art institutions, and state-controlled exhibition systems on one part. On the other hand, however, I will make an argument for complicating this context with a multipolar and yet entangled avant-gardes composed of many histories that connect and diverge at the same time. Showing the example of the Japanese Futurist Art Association and their follow-up formations, this paper will illustrate the process of applying, changing, and translating the European avant-gardes within the local context. Moving on to the case studies, the following core question will be addressed: How do the activities of the migrant artists reflect the Japanese avant-gardes? How could their choices be read as comments on the time they are involved in and the barriers they are faced with and trying to overcome?