, often shortened to , was a short-lived but influential Japanese
Neo-Dada
Neo-Dada was a movement with audio, visual and literary manifestations that had similarities in method or intent with earlier Dada artwork. It sought to close the gap between art and daily life, and was a combination of playfulness, iconoclasm, a ...
ist art collective formed by
Masunobu Yoshimura in 1960. Composed of a small group of young, up-and-coming artists who met periodically at Yoshimura's "White House"
atelier
An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or v ...
in
Shinjuku
is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...
, the Neo-Dada Organizers engaged in all manner of visual and performance artworks, but specialized in producing disturbing, impulsive spectacles, often involving physical destruction of objects, that the art critic
Ichirō Hariu deemed "savagely meaningless," and that inspired another art critic, Yoshiaki Tōno, to coin the term "anti-art" (''han-geijutsu''). Examples included filling galleries with piles of garbage, smashing furniture to the beat of jazz music, and prancing the streets of
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
in various states of dress and undress. Using the human body as their medium of art, their violent performances reflected both their dissatisfaction with the restrictive environment of the Japanese art world at the time, as well as contemporary social developments, most notably the massive
1960 Anpo protests against the
U.S.-Japan Security Treaty
The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or th ...
.
The Neo-Dada Organizers held three official exhibitions in 1960, as well as a number of bizarre "actions," "events," and "happenings" in which they sought to mock, deconstruct, and in many cases, physically destroy conventional forms of art. Many of the group's members and participants would go on to become noted artists in their own right, including
Genpei Akasegawa,
Shūsaku Arakawa,
Sayako Kishimoto
was a Japanese artist who worked across mediums including paintings, drawings, and performances. Best known as one of the few female members in the short-lived art collective Neo-Dada Organizers, Kishimoto investigated female identity and the def ...
,
Tetsumi Kudō,
Natsuyuki Nakanishi
Natsuyuki Nakanishi (Kanji: 中西夏之, ''Nakanishi Natsuyuki'', b. July 14, 1935, Tokyo, d. October 23, 2016) was a Japanese visual and conceptual artist associated with the 1960s avant-garde art movement in Japan. His artworks ranged from Neo-D ...
, and
Ushio Shinohara
Ushio Shinohara (篠原 有司男, ''Shinohara Ushio'', born January 17, 1932), nicknamed “Gyū-chan”, is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. Best known for his vigorously painted, large- ...
.
Artistic stance
Neo-Dada Organizers was formed at a time when Japan was rapidly modernizing after the destruction of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The group positioned themselves in opposition to all established art forms and institutions, especially the strains of
humanism
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
and
socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
that dominated Japanese art circles in the 1950s, but also the recent tendency toward wholesale importation of foreign art trends, such as
abstract art
Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.
Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...
and ''
Art Informel
Informalism or Art Informel is a pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the abstract and gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World War II, similar to American abstract expressioni ...
.'' But beyond opposing the dominant art forms of the time, the Neo-Dada Organizers reacted to the efforts by the
Liberal Democratic Party government, led by conservative Prime Minister
Nobusuke Kishi
was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960.
Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...
, to revise and extend the
United States Japan Security Treaty (known as "Anpo" in Japanese), which led to the massive
Anpo protests across the country. Because it locked Japan into a quasi-permanent
military alliance with the United States, the treaty led many Japanese to fear that Japan would become a target should a nuclear war break out.
At their first exhibition, held at the Ginza Gallery in Tokyo in April, 1960, the Neo-Dada Organizers released a list of their guiding principles:
These principles signaled the group's devotion to what group member
Genpei Akasegawa would later term "creative destruction" whereby the group sought to create a space for new types of art to emerge by systematically seeking out and destroying all existing artistic norms and conventions.
In June 1960, Akasegawa read out the group's "manifesto" (written by group member
Ushio Shinohara
Ushio Shinohara (篠原 有司男, ''Shinohara Ushio'', born January 17, 1932), nicknamed “Gyū-chan”, is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. Best known for his vigorously painted, large- ...
) to a group of reporters:
This statement conveyed a sense of hopeless desperation that, at a time when attempts to create new forms of art were being suffocated by oppressive ideologies and hide-bound institutions, the only way to save art was to kill it.
Name
The term "
Neo-Dada
Neo-Dada was a movement with audio, visual and literary manifestations that had similarities in method or intent with earlier Dada artwork. It sought to close the gap between art and daily life, and was a combination of playfulness, iconoclasm, a ...
" was first used in May 1957 in
Robert Rosenblum
Robert Rosenblum (July 24, 1927 – December 6, 2006) was an American art historian and curator known for his influential and often irreverent scholarship on European and American art of the mid-eighteenth to 20th centuries.
Biography
Rosenblum wa ...
's "Castelli Group" article for ''
Arts Magazine
''Arts Magazine'' was a prominent monthly magazine devoted to fine art. It was established in 1926 and last published in 1992.
History Early years
Launched in 1926 and originally titled ''The Art Digest,'' it was printed semi-monthly from Octobe ...
'', and then, more dramatically, in January 1958, in the New York art monthly ''
ARTnews
''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...
'', to describe the style of the most recent collage and assemblage artists - primarily
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...
and
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
. The latter became known in Japan primarily through the art critic Yoshiaki Tōno, who published an article about them in the November, 1959, issue of ''Geijutsu shinchō''.
The use of the term "Neo-Dada" did not mean that the group claimed any direct link to the original Japanese
Dadaists
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...
of the 1920s (such as
Tomoyoshi Murayama
was a Japanese artist, play writer, novelist and drama producer active during the Shōwa period in Japan.
Early life
Murayama was born in the Kanda Suehiro district of Tokyo. His father, who was a medic in the Imperial Japanese Navy, died when h ...
or the group
MAVO). The term "Neo-Dada" in this usage was as much a wink to the New York avant-garde as a reference to historical Dadaism. That said, relations between certain members of the Neo-Dada Organizers and their American counterparts could be tense, as exemplified most notably in a confrontation between
Ushio Shinohara
Ushio Shinohara (篠原 有司男, ''Shinohara Ushio'', born January 17, 1932), nicknamed “Gyū-chan”, is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. Best known for his vigorously painted, large- ...
and
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
during the performance ''Twenty Questions to Bob Rauschenberg'', which took place at the
Sōgetsu Art Center on November 28, 1964.
By adding the English word "organizers" to their name, the group indicated their interest in appropriating (and possibly mocking) the left-wing jargon of the ongoing
Anpo protests. The group's Japanese name, written ''Neo・dada・oruganaizāzu'' in
katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
script with dots in between the words, would normally translate to "Neo-Dada Organizers" in a standard English translation. However, the group's usage of this name was inconsistent, and increasingly came to be abbreviated simply "Neo-Dada" over time. In the announcement for their first exhibition, the group called the exhibition the "Neo-Dadaism Organizer Exhibition" without an "s" at the end, but "Organizers" with an "s" was used in other contexts.
Art historian
Reiko Tomii is a Japanese-born art historian and curator based in New York. Specializing in Japanese modern and conceptual art in its global context during the postwar period, Tomii is one of the art historians publishing in the English language on postwar Jap ...
has argued, in a 2005 "Translator's Note," that the group's name should be spelled "Neo Dada" without a hyphen, despite the fact that the term "
Neo-Dada
Neo-Dada was a movement with audio, visual and literary manifestations that had similarities in method or intent with earlier Dada artwork. It sought to close the gap between art and daily life, and was a combination of playfulness, iconoclasm, a ...
" is almost invariably hyphenated in English. However, hyphens do not ordinarily exist in Japanese script, and group members often employed the Japanese
interpunct
An interpunct , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot and centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script. (Word-separating spaces did no ...
(a centrally-aligned black dot, the closest Japanese equivalent to a hyphen) between the words "Neo" and "Dada," as attested in their flyers, writings, and artworks. In any case, the term "Neo-Dada Organizers" (with hyphen and in the plural), has become a standard term for the group in English language scholarship, as well as in standard art historical reference works.
Activities
The Neo-Dada group members gathered at their leader
Masunobu Yoshimura's atelier, called the "White House" (''Howaito Hausu''), which had been designed by
Arata Isozaki
Arata Isozaki (磯崎 新, ''Isozaki Arata''; born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019.
Biography
Isozaki was ...
and built by
Junzō Yoshimura
was a Japanese architect.
Early career
Yoshimura dated his desire to become an architect to the day he first entered Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, shortly after the Kanto earthquake of 1923. "“It was the first time that I fel ...
in
Shinjuku
is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...
in 1958. It would serve as their main base of operations until 1962.
At the "White House," they spent day and night discussing, writing leaflets, organizing performances-cum-parties, and working towards the
Yomiuri Indépendant Exhibition and other group shows. They arranged a rapid-fire series of exhibitions in 1960, at times accompanied by guerrilla actions on the street.
In 1960, the movement against the renewal of the
U.S.-Japan Security Treaty
The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or th ...
had spread throughout the country and formed the background to the violent political upheaval of the time. In Tokyo, the
Diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
was surrounded by the crowd of demonstrators, and in the middle of the ranting and tumult,
Shūsaku Arakawa threw a brick at the police: legend has it that, as a result, the demonstration turned into a riot. The Neo-Dada Organizers actively took part in the anti-Treaty protests on the streets of Tokyo, but deliberately sought to conflate political revolution with artistic revolution. For example, they paraded through the streets with leaflets, lightbulbs, or other bizarre paraphernalia attached all over their bodies and replaced shouts of "Anpo hantai" ("down with the Security Treaty") with cries of "Anfo hantai" ("down with
Art Informel
Informalism or Art Informel is a pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the abstract and gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World War II, similar to American abstract expressioni ...
").
In parallel with these activist activities, the group organized three official exhibitions and individual members of the collective participated in the major events of the early 1960s, especially the Yomiuri Indépendant Exhibition cycle (1949-1963) and at the
Sogetsu Art Center (1958-1971).
Selected events
First Neo-Dada Exhibition (April 4–9, 1960)
The first "official" Neo-Dada Organizers exhibition was held at the Ginza Gallery in Tokyo. The group displayed found objects and garbage while playing jazz tapes and "sexy whispers." Meanwhile, a half-naked man hacked at the "artworks" with an axe. The sounds of objects being destroyed were recorded, and then played loudly out into the street from the gallery's window.
Betsujin Ishibashi also performed his work ''Fifteen Minutes in a Waseda Street in the Morning,'' reminiscent of American Neo-Dadaist
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
’s ''Automobile Tire Print'' (1951), in which Ishibashi laid a large sheet of paper in the street and let passing automobiles run it over before retrieving the dirtied paper 15 minutes later.
''Anpo Commemoration Event'' (June 18, 1960)
On June 18, 1960, just three days after student activist
Michiko Kanba was killed in a clash with police at the
National Diet
The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...
as part of the ongoing
Anpo protests, group members convened at Yoshinobu's "White House" atelier and staged a performance called ''Anpo Commemoration Event'' (安保記念エベント) for gathered reporters and television cameras, supposedly to "commemorate" the failure of the protests to stop the passage of the
U.S.-Japan Security Treaty
The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or th ...
. Several group members group stripped naked and danced wildly. Yoshimura appeared with a massive erect penis and testicles made of cloth, paper, and string tied to his loins, white arrows painted on his chest, and a gaping red wound painted on his stomach that looked as if he had just disembowled himself in a ''
seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
'' suicide ritual, and Arakawa appeared in a grotesque, monster-like costume and gulped directly from a bottle of strong ''
shōchū
is a Japanese distilled beverage. It is typically distilled from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat, or brown sugar, though it is sometimes produced from other ingredients such as chestnut, sesame seeds, potatoes, or even carrots.
Ty ...
'' while dancing around and making strange noises. The performance concluded with the group gathering around a large plywood panel and taking turns ritualistically destroying it with acid, fire, and a hatchet. Shortly after this somber event concluded, the Security Treaty was automatically passed in the Upper House of the Japanese Diet, in accordance with Japanese law.
Second Neo-Dada Exhibition (July 1–10, 1960)
The second "official" Neo-Dada Exhibition took place at Yoshimura's atelier in Shinjuku. Group member
Tatsumi Yoshino set his aptly-named work ''Danger'' alight inside the atelier.
''Beach Show'' (July 20, 1960)
The ''Beach Show'' was performed at Zaimokuza Beach in
Kamakura
is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939.
Kamak ...
. In a performance filmed by television station
TBS, male members carried out sadistic acts against women associated with the group, including
Sayako Kishimoto
was a Japanese artist who worked across mediums including paintings, drawings, and performances. Best known as one of the few female members in the short-lived art collective Neo-Dada Organizers, Kishimoto investigated female identity and the def ...
.
Third Neo-Dada Exhibition (September 1–7, 1960)
The third and final "official" Neo-Dada Exhibition was put on at the Hibiya Gallery near
Hibiya Park
Hibiya Park (日比谷公園 ''Hibiya Kōen'') is a park in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan. It covers an area of 161,636.66 m2 (40 acres) between the east gardens of the Imperial Palace to the north, the Shinbashi district to the southeast and the Ka ...
.
Ushio Shinohara
Ushio Shinohara (篠原 有司男, ''Shinohara Ushio'', born January 17, 1932), nicknamed “Gyū-chan”, is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. Best known for his vigorously painted, large- ...
, sporting his trademark
mohawk hairstyle
The mohawk (also referred to as a Mohican) is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair in the center. It is today worn as an emblem of non-conformity.
The m ...
, installed a temporary installation in Hibiya Park and then slashed it to ribbons.
Masunobu Yoshimura wrapped his naked body with the group's exhibition flyers and
Kinpei Masuzawa covered himself in fragile glass lightbulbs before proceeding to stroll through downtown Tokyo.
''Bizarre Assembly'' (September 30, 1960)
The ''Bizarre Assembly'', an outdoor destructive performance, was held at Yoshimura's "White House" atelier in Shinjuku. Yoshimura, Masuzawa, and Shinohara struck jagged holes into a metal sheet. Shinohara also performed his now-famous “boxing painting,” in which punched a large piece of paper with boxing gloves that had been dipped in ink.
''Dinner Commemorating Our Defeat in the War'' (August 15, 1962)
On the 17th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, some members from Neo-Dada reunited along with
Group Ongaku
Group Ongaku (グループ音楽, ''Grūpu Ongaku'') was a Japanese noise music and sound art collective exploring musical improvisation, composed of six composers, including Takehisa Kosugi, Mieko Shiomi (composer), Mieko Shiomi (Chieko Shiomi), Y ...
and
Tatsumi Hijikata
was a Japanese choreographer, and the founder of a genre of dance performance art called Butoh. By the late 1960s, he had begun to develop this dance form, which is highly choreographed with stylized gestures drawn from his childhood memories of ...
to stage a collaborative performance, entitled ''Dinner Commemorating Our Defeat in the War'' (敗戦記念晩餐会), in a Tokyo suburb with the help of art critic Yoshida Yoshie. The event consisted of the performers eating a sumptuous dinner eaten before an audience, whose members had unwittingly purchased a 200-yen ticket for the privilege of watching them. The night was subtitled "Art minus Art" (Geijutsu mainasu geijutsu). During the evening, several performances followed one another: Masunobu Yoshimura brushed his teeth for about 30 minutes until his mouth ran with blood,
Shō Kazakura
Sho, Shō or SHO may refer to:
Music
* ''Shō'' (instrument) (笙), a Japanese wind instrument
* ''Kane'' (instrument) (鉦), a Japanese percussion instrument
* Sho?, a Dubai rock band
People
* Shō (given name), including ''Sho''
* Shō (surn ...
stood on a chair and pressed a hot iron to his chest as part of a "ritual to execute the will of the
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...
,"
Yasunao Tone
(b. 1935) is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Tokyo, Japan and working in New York City. He graduated from Chiba University in 1957 with a major in Japanese Literature. An important figure in postwar Japanese art during the sixties, he was acti ...
and Group Ongaku gave a concert of experimental music, and
Tatsumi Hijikata
was a Japanese choreographer, and the founder of a genre of dance performance art called Butoh. By the late 1960s, he had begun to develop this dance form, which is highly choreographed with stylized gestures drawn from his childhood memories of ...
stripped naked and performed
Butoh
is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders ...
, among others.
Photo documentation
In addition to the above named events and activities, the group also engaged in a number of spontaneous performative acts, including street demonstrations, stage performances, outdoor performances, and social gatherings. These events became the source of media spectacle, and were avidly documented by photographers, including
Kenji Ishiguro, Takeo Ishimatsu, Masanori Kobayashi,
Shōmei Tōmatsu
was a Japanese photographer. He is known primarily for his images that depict the impact of World War II on Japan and the subsequent occupation of U.S. forces. As one of the leading postwar photographers, Tōmatsu is attributed with influencing th ...
,
William Klein and Jacqueline Paul.
Compared to
Kyūshū-ha, which was based in a remote region, Neo-Dada was able to exploit the power of the mass media concentrated in Tokyo. As curator Raiji Kuroda has pointed out, members of Neo-Dada seemed to know the value of getting themselves seen; with the mass audience in mind they performed in front of photographers and television camera crews.
According to art historian
Reiko Tomii is a Japanese-born art historian and curator based in New York. Specializing in Japanese modern and conceptual art in its global context during the postwar period, Tomii is one of the art historians publishing in the English language on postwar Jap ...
, these different forms of photographic and videographic captures are typical of the networks of artistic collaborations (intrinsically collaborative practices of the group and then collaboration with photographers), while being essential for the preservation and sharing of these anti-art practices, of which few physical traces remain.
Dissolution
Although the Neo-Dada Organizers never officially disbanded, they did not hold any major public events after the fall of 1960, after which time many of the group's leading members began to pursue their own individual artistic activities. In October 1960, five female dancers from the Nobutoshi Tsuda Dance Studio in Meguro visited the White House, and Yoshimura shocked everyone by suddenly proposing to and marrying one of them. Thereafter, according to Shinohara Ushio, the Neo-Dada Organizers group "was essentially dissolved."
In 1962, Yoshimura sold his White House atelier and decamped to New York City.
Shūsaku Arakawa,
Tetsumi Kudō, and a bit later
Ushio Shinohara
Ushio Shinohara (篠原 有司男, ''Shinohara Ushio'', born January 17, 1932), nicknamed “Gyū-chan”, is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. Best known for his vigorously painted, large- ...
, despairing of the reception of their work in their own country, similarly went into exile in New York or Paris.
Legacy
Although short-lived, Neo-Dada's bizarre and spectacular performances received outsized media attention, and proved influential on a number of Japanese artistic collectives active later in the 1960s and associated with the "anti-art" movement, including Zero Jigen, Group Ongaku, and
Hi-Red Center Hi-Red Center (ハイレッド・センター, Haireddo Sentā) was a Japanese artistic collective, founded in May 1963 and consisting of artists Genpei Akasegawa, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, and Jirō Takamatsu, that organized and performed anti-establi ...
.
In retrospect, the Tokyo art world was clearly on the verge of a fundamental shift. One figure from the Neo-Dada circle who chose to remain in Japan was
Genpei Akasegawa. He joined forces with
Jirо̄ Takamatsu and
Natsuyuki Nakanishi
Natsuyuki Nakanishi (Kanji: 中西夏之, ''Nakanishi Natsuyuki'', b. July 14, 1935, Tokyo, d. October 23, 2016) was a Japanese visual and conceptual artist associated with the 1960s avant-garde art movement in Japan. His artworks ranged from Neo-D ...
to form
Hi-Red Center Hi-Red Center (ハイレッド・センター, Haireddo Sentā) was a Japanese artistic collective, founded in May 1963 and consisting of artists Genpei Akasegawa, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, and Jirō Takamatsu, that organized and performed anti-establi ...
, and together they continued agitating within the Tokyo art scene. Not unlike Neo-Dada,
Hi-Red Center Hi-Red Center (ハイレッド・センター, Haireddo Sentā) was a Japanese artistic collective, founded in May 1963 and consisting of artists Genpei Akasegawa, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, and Jirō Takamatsu, that organized and performed anti-establi ...
had a relatively open approach to membership, with other artists often joining their actions and events.
Notable Members
Membership in the group was fluid and hard to pinpoint. However, art historian Raiji Kuroda defines the group's core members as follows: artists listed on two promotional fliers (announcements) made for the first and second group exhibitions, plus those who participated directly in the third exhibition.
Tetsumi Kudō and
Tomio Miki refused to officially join the group, but almost invariably participated in their events and activities.
Neo-Dada Organizers
*
Masunobu Yoshimura, founder (1932–2011)
*
Genpei Akasegawa (1937-2014)
*
Shūsaku Arakawa (1936-2010)
*
Hiroko Hiraoka
*
Betsujin Ishibashi (born 1938)
*
Shō Kazakura
Sho, Shō or SHO may refer to:
Music
* ''Shō'' (instrument) (笙), a Japanese wind instrument
* ''Kane'' (instrument) (鉦), a Japanese percussion instrument
* Sho?, a Dubai rock band
People
* Shō (given name), including ''Sho''
* Shō (surn ...
(1936-2007)
*
Sayako Kishimoto
was a Japanese artist who worked across mediums including paintings, drawings, and performances. Best known as one of the few female members in the short-lived art collective Neo-Dada Organizers, Kishimoto investigated female identity and the def ...
(1939-1988)
*
Kinpei Masuzawa
*
Ushio Shinohara
Ushio Shinohara (篠原 有司男, ''Shinohara Ushio'', born January 17, 1932), nicknamed “Gyū-chan”, is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist based in New York City. Best known for his vigorously painted, large- ...
(born 1932)
*
Santarō Tanabe
*
Shintarō Tanaka
*
Sōroku Toyoshima
*
Jun Ueda
*
Tatsumi Yoshino
Neo-Dada sympathizers (non-members but sometimes participated)
*
Tatsumi Hijikata
was a Japanese choreographer, and the founder of a genre of dance performance art called Butoh. By the late 1960s, he had begun to develop this dance form, which is highly choreographed with stylized gestures drawn from his childhood memories of ...
(1928-1986)
*
Toshi Ichiyanagi
was a Japanese avant-garde composer and pianist. One of the leading composers in Japan during the postwar era, Ichiyanagi worked in a range of genres, composing Western-style operas and orchestral and chamber works, as well as compositions using ...
(1933-2022)
*
Arata Isozaki
Arata Isozaki (磯崎 新, ''Isozaki Arata''; born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019.
Biography
Isozaki was ...
(born 1931)
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Tetsumi Kudō (1935-1990)
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Tomio Miki (1937-1978)
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Natsuyuki Nakanishi
Natsuyuki Nakanishi (Kanji: 中西夏之, ''Nakanishi Natsuyuki'', b. July 14, 1935, Tokyo, d. October 23, 2016) was a Japanese visual and conceptual artist associated with the 1960s avant-garde art movement in Japan. His artworks ranged from Neo-D ...
(1935-2016)
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Yasunao Tone
(b. 1935) is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Tokyo, Japan and working in New York City. He graduated from Chiba University in 1957 with a major in Japanese Literature. An important figure in postwar Japanese art during the sixties, he was acti ...
(born 1935)
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*{{Cite book, last=Yoshimoto, first=Midori, title=Into Performance: Japanese Women Artists in New York, publisher=Rutgers University Press, year=2005, isbn=0813535212, location=London
Neo-Dada
Avant-garde art
Modern art
Contemporary art organizations
Japanese artist groups and collectives