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GUTAI

Hamsa Damayanthi

In 1899 Raja Ravi Varma painted Hamsa Damayanthi. Although the scene depicted is a myth taken from the Mahabharata epic, a quintessentially Indian subject matter, the materials that the ‘Gentleman Artist’ used was oil paint on canvas, something that only appeared in India after the colonial government started to intrude on Indian arts. Furthermore the Academic Realist style of the painting is also politicized as the British artists used this style to capture India in Orientalist, romanticized paintings depicting. After Said’s influential book, we now understand Orientalism as damaging to a culture as it undermines reality and perpetuates Western myths that show the culture as beneath refined Western society. However, at the time Varma’s paintings were well received and thought to serve Indian culture to the new Western audience in a way they understood –Indian traditional subjects, sentimentalized with European rules of tone, perspective and oil paint which proved its importance.

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Falling Figure with Bird

Tyeb Mehta was a member of the Progressive School of Art in Bombay. As backlash against Academic Realism,

many artists like the Bengal School felt that Indian artists should try to attain a style that reflects the

traditions of their culture. After India gained Independence there was less call for a Nationalist

agenda to art. The Progressives instead concentrated on making art that could participate in a global art

dialogue by engaging with modernist themes such as urbanization, celebrity culture and critiquing social order

–instead of the politics of materials. In 2003 Mehta painted ‘Falling Figure with Bird’ which may comment on

the Partition of India. The partition was a violent process, which has led to aggression between religious

groups and nation states. The violence of the contortions in the figures communicates the needless suffering and hostilities that the people of a common land felt when the Imperialist regime divided the land.

Although the partition occurred at the time of independence, its effects are still felt in Indian and

Pakistani society, as Mehta’s art shows. Return to Room

DeviRavinder Reddy’s colossal sculptures make a feature of the type of Hindu imagery found on the streets of India.

Devi, the sculpture that stands at 111inchs, from 1998 is an example of this. Like pop art this piece takes a popular image and places it in the gallery space,

allowing us to reconsider the mass produced images we regularly engage with. The piece has a kitsch appeal, something that Indian –and especially Hindu- visual culture is often labeled as. This Eurocentric view of

Hindu aesthetics has led to awareness among Indian artists to not allow this kitsch into their art. On the contrary, Reddy makes a spectacle of the kitsch,

displaying it without comment, which makes a disturbing rather than ridiculous effect –the sculptures have been said to unsettle viewers. The piece also comments on

the way Indian women are still living with their traditions and heritage, although are now decisively modern.

Reddy’s work is a truly ‘Indian’ aesthetic, something that has come directly from popular images and everyday life in India. His work proves that original artwork can

come from India, independent of the metanarrative of art which privileges the West as innovators in the art world. Return to Room

A Snowy Day in 1968

A Snowy Day in 1968, is one particular example showcasing the work of the The Scar (Shanghen) painters.

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Book From The Sky

During the Cultural Revolution, the majority of written language was to serve the purpose of the people. With Xu Bing’s Book From The Sky, his intricate and elegant work of language reflects a nefarious side of the Cultural Revolution. Book From the Sky has a pessimistic tone to it; shown in how the hanging scrolls come down in oppressive waves of illegible characters, suggesting the pressure of the Cultural Revolution on many Chinese citizens at the time. The use of these unreadable characters not only connote the meaninglessness words have when attached to a political manifesto, but also the extreme power it can have over someone.

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Great Castigation Series:Coca-Cola

Wang Guangyi’s Great Castigation Series: Coca-Cola!, gives the impression of a superficial combination of political and commercial symbols with a overt cynical tone. When looking at his work, a quote by Andy Warhol comes to mind: “the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coke, a Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke -- all are the same and all are just as good.” Juxtaposing this egalitarian attitude with Great Castigation Series: Coco-Cola! shows that consumer culture and the ideology of the Mao era are not that far apart, making this piece a critique on how Chinese society has gone from being blindly led by the state to being blindly led by western consumer products.

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Xi Haozhou “Cartoon Heros” 2000

Xi Haozhou “Cartoon Heros” 2000

In the earlier 1990s, the industry and capital models, along with the economic liberalization brought about the re-structuring of the society in China. Politics has been transformed into a post-ideological organizational system and the establishment of the commerce and pop culture on the daily levels in the society in China has trusteed the society of China forward into a post-political and cultural construction.

This piece is a visual representation of the confusion, or uncertainness that young people in China feel both politically and morally. Chinese people do not feel a sense of openness, but they do feel the pull of consumerism, capitalism and the need to be successful in life so they can have all the things that they desire. The subjects appear to be searching- looking to each other for answers perhaps. Looking to themselves as to where to go next. Return to Room

Zhong Biao “Family in Heaven”, 2000

Zhong Biao “Family in Heaven”, 2000She is a contemporary social and political artist. He work is in response to socialism, industrialism, capitalism and also I feel a woman’s place in a man’s world- particularly in China. This piece has an interesting title. I feel it is representing how women are strong- they can work as hard as men, dress like a men and hold the same kind of power. In heaven the bonded women will be in charge.

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Liu Jianhua “The Enchanting Memory” 2000

Liu Jianhua “The Enchanting Memory” 2000

The artist is a sculptor and installation artist. His sculptures and installations often recreate assembly lines, piles of electronic waste and broken pieces of porcelain- a material he uses often. This piece is a response to consumerism. My take of it is how one can loose their head in consumption. I think it is also a commentary of how women are expected to perform in the consumer world of life-in China. While they look pretty in their heels and dresses, the pressure to be the perfect woman can be too much. How do women compete and stay afloat in life and not lose their heads?

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Sakuhin ((Tsuka) (Paper Break Through))

•Saburo Murakami, Sakuhin ((Tsuka) (Paper Break Through)), 1956, 42 kraft paper, 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, October 1956

•In the action of bursting through 42 layers of wrapping paper, an idea inspired from his two year old son, he transcends the humans emotions of rage and anger.

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GUTAI

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Isolated from the Western art world, artists in post-war Japan, began to question the value placed on Intellectual art. As the struggle to find a contemporary art movement that would encapsulate a country starting over pressed on, artists like Yoshihara Jiro promoted a bold, anti-academic idea that true art lay in the chance encounter of the gu--- tool or material and tai--- body or substance. Jiro challenged his colleagues to create what has never before existed. and with that, Gutai was born. Gutai members created works, performances and installations that rejected the modernist value on intellectualism. Influenced by the more imaginative process of children’s art and their ability to tap into an uninhibited mode of creativity, the movement worked to establish a universal artistic language that thrust Japanese avant-garde into the global art community. Focusing on materiality, action and raw human emotion, Gutai artists reached out in hopes to bridge the gaps between Japan and the rest of the world following the trauma of the second World War. Themes of impermanence, renewal, self-reflection and improvisation fueled  open-air exhibits that exposed works to the elements. This emphasized materiality and allowed for viewers to interact instinctively with the exhibition space, as well as the pieces that exist within it.

Sakuhin (Eau)

•Sadamasa Motonaga, Sakuhin (Eau), 1956 (1992), Indian ink, water, tubes of polyethylene sheets, variable dimensions, The Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition (Second Gutai Open Air Exhibition), 1956, Ashiya Museum of Art & History

•This open air installation piece consists of light material cloths and water. With the tones of fluctuation and lightness these materials combine with the essence of the surroundings through the action of process.

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Electric Dress

•Tanaka Atsuko

•Electric Dress (Denki-fuku)

•1956/1985 One of the most iconic images of the Gutai movement this installation piece, constructed in the artist’s performance, shows a lightness effect from the light bulbs creating a contrast to the heaviness of the costume from which under the artist could barely move.

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Ashiato

•Akira Kanayama , Ashiato, 1956 (2006) , paint on plastic sheets, installation view, The Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition, (Second Gutai Open Air Exhibition),1956, Ashiya Museum of Art & History

•Ashiato translating as “Footprint” is an installation piece made up of black foot prints that indicate a “misleading” path to no where.

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White Board

•Fujiko Shiraga, White Board, 1955, painted wood, The Experimental Outdoor Modern Art Exhibition to Challenge the Midsummer Sun (1st Gutai Open Air Exhibition), 1955

•Shiraga installed a platform with a crack down the center in a public park asking visitors to walk down the center. Experimenting with their uncertainly and frailty.

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Doro ni idomu (Challenging Mud)

•Kazuo Shiraga, Doro ni idomu (Challenging Mud), 1955, 1st Gutai Art Exhibition, Ohara Hall, Tokyo, October 1955, Ashiya City Museum of Art & History

•From the artist who is famous for painting with his feet, here does a performance rolling around in the mud creating a sculpture with the mud and with

himself.

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Trauma Due to The Interjections of The West

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