Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan, 1950-1970 May 26, 2007

At the end of World War II, Japan was left in ruins and in a cultural void. Numerous antiestablishment artistic collaboratives emerged during this period, notably Jikken Kobo/Experimental Workshop, Gutai, Group Ongaku, Tokyo Fluxus, Yomiuri Independent artists, High Red Center, VIVO and Provoke. These collectives eschewed traditional commercial art practice in favor of radical work that provoked its audience conceptually, politically and socially. In experimenting with new materials and processes of art making and disruption of conventional art forms, the work of these artists reflected the dramatic changes and disjunctive character of everyday life in Japan over the course of two decades following the war.