Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde at the MOMA

"From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, Tokyo transformed itself from the capital of a war-torn nation into an international center for arts, culture, and commerce, becoming home to some of the most important art being made at the time. Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde provides a focused look at the extraordinary concentration and network of creative individuals and practices in this dynamic city during these turbulent years. Featuring works of various media—painting, sculpture, photography, drawings, and graphic design, as well as video and documentary film—the exhibition offers a story of artistic crossings, collaborations, and, at times, conflicts, with the city as an incubator. It introduces the myriad avant-garde experiments that emerged as artists drew on the energy of this rapidly growing and changing metropolis."

The above quote is taken from the Museum of Modern Art's website.  I viewed the exhibit the other day and was very surprised at how little I knew about the avant-garde movement in Tokyo at that time.

The work I saw was very political and experimental.  There were many references to the atomic bomb, repression, the war, history etc.  Above is an example of a surreal painting of a samauri overlooking what appears to be an american west landscape.

This is an exhibit worth seeing if for no other reason than to get a feel of what was happening during this important period in Japanese art.