Public lecture by Dr Klara Hrvatin »The art movements that shaped Japanese post-war art«

30 October 2019 - Wednesday's lecture was titled Art Movements that shaped Japanese post-war art. As an introductory lecture on the subject of post-war art movements, the lecture provided a brief outline of post-war art movements in Japan and highlighted the Sōgetsu art movement (1958-1971), which proved to be one of the key junctions in a wide range of Japanese avant-garde art. Beginning in the early 1960s, it provided a rich experimental and innovative platform for Japanese artists and made it possible to interact more closely with Western avant-garde artists.

The lecture gave an insight into 1) political impulses of the period supported by the movement, including the ANPO political protest, 2) the first traces of Japanese musical avant-garde art - the Experimental Workshop and its comparison with the Sōgetsu movement, 3) the main representatives of the movement, in particulary the three key figures which were responsible for film production - film director Hiroshi Tehigahara, novelist Kōbō Abe and composer Tōru Takemitsu, as well as major foreign artists who had a significant influence on the movement, 4) presenting the Sōgetsu Art Center as a common space for the Sōgetsu movement (while in the same building also Sōgetsu ikebana school had its place under the auspices of Sōfu Teshigahara, 5) the main activities that took place in the Sōgetsu Center; mainly from the fields of jazz and contemporary music, experimental film and animation.