Paper short abstract:

By considering the broader social and historical circumstances that have instigated the emergence and evolution of conceptual art in Japan, this paper places special emphasis on the artistic lagacy of a diverse group of artists that participated in the international Fluxus movement

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the emergence of a generation of postwar Japanese artists who made significant contributions to the international art scene in the 60's and the 70's. By adopting diverse artistic strategies and visual expressions they operated within a broader international framework that originated and emphasised artistic responses to questions much present today - the problems of race, national and social conditioning, and above all - the questions of origin, center and the deconstruction of artistic object. The emergence of new ideas of deconstruction, accompanied by a sudden relativisation of formerly appreciated values in the interpretation of art, has also led to a proliferation of styles, discourses and bizarre side effects - from random accumulation and experimentation with the new digital media, to ideas that were completely subjugated to the control of mathematical reasoning. What entailed was a devaluation of art itself, as its independence has been called into question - a fact that can determine its fate. Namely, if everything created yesterday ends up despised and rejected tomorrow, it will surely be forgotten in the future. This shared psychological reaction constructed a belief that art and its practice must become subject to urgent and immediate reconsideration - influenced also by a deep-rooted and widespread notion that all art is created in the spirit of the times, which is fickle and inconsistent, and therefore condemned to serve as disposable. The pioneering Japanese conceptual artist shared the idea that the only form of art worth pursuing is critical and engaged. This is reflected in the apparent paradox of experiencing the artistic truth as a collaborative action, established firstly through confrontation with the truth in a work of art, then through dialogue, dispute and discussion in a wider circle. By examining the work of Japanese artist and their legacy in the global context, this modest contribution hopes to facilitate a consideration of some wider issues, such as the relationship between art theory and practice, the concept of stylisation and spontaneity in artistic transposition of reality, questions of the typical and individual in artistic expressions, and other related topics.