Asian American Abstract Art---1945-1970
WaterBabe
caught my eye, a refreshing alternative, I thought, to the monopoly of
traditional Asian art themes in various American art venues I ran into.
Looking at the pictures in print, an Asian component in the subject,
symbol and theme of the works is unmistakable, while the brush strokes
and expressive style claim disciple(or is it contemporary) of the
abstract movement in the West; combined together, the final hybrid is
something I was immediately drawn to, with ease I felt the echo of the
artists's unspoken dialogues, I guess one can contribute that to the
underlying cultural familiarities from which bridges are constructed
albeit unconsciously between otherwise contrasting and diverging
individuals with no perceptible intersection among other faucets of
their lives.
The exhibit, Asian Traditions/Modern Expressions: Asian American
Artists and Abstraction, 1945-1970, one of the off-site traveling
exhibitions by the Zimmerli Art Museum(New Brunswick, NJ), was shown at
Chicago Cultural Center(9/6-11/2/97) and Fisher Gallery & Japanese
American National Museum, USC-LA(12/7/97-2/15/98). I didn't catch
either one since both are out of my area, did anyone see it? If so,
what did you think?
I wanted to get the book for a while, thus quite tickled yellowish red
when I finally tracked it down through amazon.com, bless the Internet.
^_^
If anyone is interested:
Asian Traditions Modern Expressions : Asian American Artists and
Abstraction, 1945-1970 by Jeffrey Wechsler (Editor), Jane Voorhees
Zimmerli Art Museum; Hardcover - 224 pages (April 1997) Harry N Abrams;
ISBN: 0810919761; Dimensions(in inches): 1.02 x 11.84 x 9.38; $42.00.
"This first survey of Asian American modernists active during the era
of Abstract Expressionism reevaluates an entire generation of neglected
but important artists. The works of 58 artists, including Isamu Noguchi
and Kenzo Okada, reveal the strong tradition in Asian art of abstract
techniques and show how East Asian art prefigured or paralleled "modern"
stylistic developments in the West. 194 illustrations, 84 in color."
--Table of Contents--
Director's Foreword- 7
Acknowledgments- 8
Introduction: Finding the Middle Path- 10
"Abstraction" in the Traditional Art of East Asia- 21
With the Suddenness of Creation: Trends of Abstract Painting in
Japan and China, 1945-1970- 30
International Abstraction in a National Context: Abstract
Painting in Korea, 1910-1965- 42
Roundtable Discussion- 48
--->From Asian Traditions to Modern Expressions: Abstract Art
by Asian Americans, 1945-1970- 58---<
Artists' Biographies- 147
Hybrid Worlds, Singular Visions: Hawaii's Asian American
Heritage and Art- 183
Personalizing the Abstract: Asian American Artists in Seattl-
186
From Enemy Alien to Zen Master: Japanese American Identity in
California During the Postwar Period- 190
A Brief Cultural History of the Chinese in California: From
Early Beginnings to the 1970s- 194
Nipponism and the Smell of Paint: A Recollection of New York,
circa 1958-1961- 199
Reminiscences of Mi Chou: The First Chinese Gallery in America-
205
Notes- 213
About the Authors- 217
Index- 218
Photograph Credits- 224
Sources:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810919761/qid%3D907122413/t/002-3770440-6126239
http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~zamuseum/
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1LKYXT7IYM&mscssid=J9E1GPBWAPSH2NSC00L1RN6PL6PEVUCR&isbn=0810919761
I'm a newbie in AA art, actually art in general. Any input from anyone
who's more experienced with AA art is always welcome and appreciated.
What are your experiences with AA art(please note that AA art not =
Asian art)? What goodies and disappointments have you digged out along
the way? Do your search and findings in AA art influence your
perception of art in general? If so, how?
moo shu guy
artists, much less particularly abstract ones. maybe someone will remind me
and i will go "doh!" of course, but right now i can't think of any.
in the teaching of art history/appreciation, even in the modern era of course
the focus ends up being on europeans and americans, and given the numbers
(just by population percentage), i'm not sure i can name 30 modern [let's say
post cubist] artists to come up with the one asian american one... de koonig,
rothko, louis, kline, johns, pollock, warhol, brancusi, mondrian, klee, miro.
i think i'm stuck.
some of the abstract expressionsists have a very spare style, reminiscent of
sort of a japanese aesthetic. i remember seeing one painting which amounted
to a large red dot high above a black splotch or x or something like that and
i couldn't help but think "japanese", even though the artist (forget who) was
euro/american. some iconography you just can't dissociate from even in
abstract art, in fact the iconography of flags and shields and such at some
level amount to abstract art.
at a certain level, the calligraphic tradition itself amounts to an abstract
form of expression, even in a pictographic originated language such as
chinese, the writing has been so dissociated from the original image that you
almost have to call it abstract expressionism :) it's certainly not realist
by any stretch. for phonetic based languages, the ante of abstraction is
upped another notch, but then it's hard to say whether it's still a form of
visual expression anymore- i guess it depends on the context and execution.
certainly people have tried, and some succeed. but in the conceptual sense,
is the abstraction still truly abstract, if you know the meaning of the word?
well i guess are dekoonigs dismembered and scrawled women still abstract if
we can pick out an eye here, a breast there? actually, franz kline (born
swiss?) is truly abstract since his calligraphic paintings are not words in
any language, but the spareness and the motion are certainly reminiscent of
asian calligraphic styles. i once attempted to make one, thinking "hey, it's
only oversized calligraphy", discovered it's not easy as you think, maybe
because i'm a crappy calligrapher, they don't teach the flowing styles in
american chinese schools. of course i only tried once, and maybe kline had
hundreds if not thousands of bombs/repaintings for every one that shows up on
a gallery wall, but still, you make that big black blotch, and you can't undo
it. for every mistake i made, i tried to compensate (after all it's abstract
and not trying to write a word) but all i ended up with was a busy undynamic
grey mess.
oops, just thought of one (asian-american) artist. nam june paik
(spelling?)- multimedia collagist techno freak. but again, how abstract is
abstract? his assemblages are often slapped together into approximations of
familiar objects, using familiar objects, arc de technologie,
electro-people-bots with monitors (working) for eyes. well, at least i named
one without having to do a web search. now i don't have to rack my brain
over the weekend. whew.
as for whether it feels asian or asian influenced at all? dunno. the
materials are sort of associated with american culture- tv/video etc, but i
think maybe that's partly my ignorance speaking, certainly i don't think the
japanese are that much less wired and beamed than us so maybe the business of
the flashing video montages and monitor arrays have as much to do with tokyo
as with la.
well, enough rambling for now.
msg
In article <3611F1...@my-dejanews.com>,
WaterBabe <water...@my-dejanews.com> wrote:
> A last year's newspaper article about an AA abstract art exhibit in LA
> caught my eye, a refreshing alternative, I thought, to the monopoly of
> traditional Asian art themes in various American art venues I ran into.
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
WaterBabe
> y'know, i'm really hard pressed to think of any well-known asian-american
> artists, much less particularly abstract ones. maybe someone will remind me
> and i will go "doh!" of course, but right now i can't think of any.
I roughly counted the artists in _Asian Traditions, Modern
Expressions_, there are at least 50 names, mostly Japanese, then Chinese
and Korean, I don't know how many of them are more famous now or no
longer heard of even in the art circle since a good 28 years had passed.
> post cubist] artists to come up with the one asian american one... de koonig,
> rothko, louis, kline, johns, pollock, warhol, brancusi, mondrian, klee, miro.
You are way ahead of me, besides Rothko, which I saw at the Gallery,
and Warhol, who is as much a pop icon as an artist(maybe more of an icon
than artist?), and I just read about the Pollock exhibit in NY, I don't
know anything about the rest, never took any art class.
I just got my hands on the book, along with some other books that cover
all the above mentioned names from the library(yeah saw that breast in
de Kooning), I have to do some reading before I can get back to you, so
that I know what you are talking about, I'm talking about, and will be
able to articulate better.
Thank you for your input.
P.S. fyi a local artist, David Chung, son of Korean diplomats, born in
Germany, multi-talented, writing an opera to be performed in Kazakhstan,
wrote a rap opera _Soul House_ about the experiences of Korean store
owners(hey has anyone seen it?), commissioned to create a monument for
LA Koreatown and a mural for a school in Brooklyn, went to UVA and
Corcoran School, was a Duke University Artist in Residence, teaches at
George Mason this fall, will open an exhibition in DC's Gallery K in 99.
Richard Lee
: moo shu guy wrote:
: > y'know, i'm really hard pressed to think of any well-known asian-american
: > artists, much less particularly abstract ones. maybe someone will remind me
: > and i will go "doh!" of course, but right now i can't think of any.
Nam June Paik - video artist.
Anyway, beyong Paik, here's a reason for the early scarcity of Asian
American artists, especially Korean American artists (as compared to
Chinese, Japanese, & Filipinos, who were in America in greater numbers
than Koreans till 1965):
1) Lack of a critical mass (until, again, 1965)
2) Lack of precedent
3) Language, social, and economic barriers
4) Art is harder to find than, say, literature because of the nature of
art (some art can be only viewed once and then it's pretty much gone to
memory)
: P.S. fyi a local artist, David Chung, son of Korean diplomats, born in
: Germany, multi-talented, writing an opera to be performed in Kazakhstan,
: wrote a rap opera _Soul House_ about the experiences of Korean store
: owners(hey has anyone seen it?), commissioned to create a monument for
: LA Koreatown and a mural for a school in Brooklyn, went to UVA and
: Corcoran School, was a Duke University Artist in Residence, teaches at
: George Mason this fall, will open an exhibition in DC's Gallery K in 99.
I've seen Y. David Chung's work (by the way, I believe it is "Seoul
House"). It's rather snazzy and does a good job at what he aims for --
showing his view on a "mutant culture" and its fragmentation, its newness,
and its collage of people.
Other Korean American artists to look into:
Sungho Choi (public art ... abstract expressionism, granite sculptures,
superimposed images on print)
Byron Kim (Rothko-esque)
Michael Joo (has a scientific background and incorporates it into his art)
Yong Soon Min (melds photos to distort pictures w/subtitles on them, also
uses layers of material in his work in reference to memory having its
multiple layers)
Richard Lee
--
"You can't spell P-E-N-I-S without ESPN!"
--seen on a sign held by a student in the stands at the Utah vs.
Colorado St. basketball game in 1997, televised by ESPN.
moo shu guy
lo...@wenet.net (Richard Lee) wrote:
> WaterBabe (water...@my-dejanews.com) scribbled:
> : moo shu guy wrote:
> : > y'know, i'm really hard pressed to think of any well-known asian-american
> : > artists, much less particularly abstract ones. maybe someone will remind
me
> : > and i will go "doh!" of course, but right now i can't think of any.
> Nam June Paik - video artist.
yep. i already named him at the end of my musings, but i was wavering on how
"important"/reknowned he is. i think he might be more well known than most,
because he's still active, somewhat prolific, and works in a medium where
there arent that many others- yet.
other people mentioned maya lin, i.m.pei, but they're afaik architects, or at
least trained as such (i think lin was architecture student @ yale when won
the contest for the vietnam memorial). lin's monuments (vietnam, mlk jr) i
suppose qualify as sculpture on a large scale, although maybe you can say the
same of pei's pyramids of the louvre.
msg
Richard Lee
: In article <6vhuk3$kgb$2...@its.hooked.net>,
: lo...@wenet.net (Richard Lee) wrote:
: > Nam June Paik - video artist.
: yep. i already named him at the end of my musings, but i was wavering
: on how "important"/reknowned he is. i think he might be more well known
: than most, because he's still active, somewhat prolific, and works in a
: medium where there arent that many others- yet.
He's in most of the standard Western art history texts like Gardner's, so
he has been accepted as part of the canon. His work is part of the
regular exhibits at Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, as well as the Museum
of Contemporary Art in L.A. I'm pretty sure he's in MOMA or the Met in
New York, but it's been a while since I was there.