Avant-Garde Rising: The Photographic Vanguard in Modern Japan

First Edition, 2022. 208 pages.

Book measures 9 x 12 inches. Hardcover in dust jacket. Text in Japanese and English. Published to accompany the exhibition at the Tokyo Photographic Museum of the same title, this book examines the avant-garde photography movement that flourished in Japan during the 1930s and 1940s. In five chronologically arranged chapters, the book follows the new trend’s emergence in Osaka, fueled by contact with surrealist and abstract art from overseas, and its subsequent spread throughout Japan, focusing on the cities of Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Tokyo. The avant-garde movement marked a crucial moment when photography began to search for inspiration outside of painting, with poets and designers discovering photography as a viable medium and the expressive breath and imagination beginning to surge.

Includes text introductions to each section, along with extensive essays by Jelena Stojković, Ahitaka Ikuko and Satomi Fujimura, “Avant-Garde Rising: The Photographic Vanguard in Modern Japan” contains more than 180 images of works by avant-garde figures such as Kiyoshi Koishi, Osamu Shiihara, Iwata Nakayama, Hiroshi Hamaya, Nakaji Yasui and Kansuke Yamamoto, as well as works by the foreign artists who inspired them, including Eugène Atget, Man Ray and Hans Bellmer.

A Fine copy in Fine dust jacket.