Exhibition at the Albertina explores post-war photography magazine Provoke
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, October 11, 2024


Exhibition at the Albertina explores post-war photography magazine Provoke
Yutaka Takanashi, The Beatles, from the series Tokyoites, 1965. Albertina, Vienna © Takanashi Yutaka.



VIENNA.- The Japanese photo magazine Provoke, which ran for three issues in 1968 and 1969, is regarded as a highlight of post-war photography. The Albertina, in the world’s first-ever exhibition on this topic, is taking a close look at this publication’s creators and its long genesis. The presentation encompasses a representative cross-section of Japanese photographic trends during the 1960s and 1970s. With around 200 objects, the exhibition Provoke unites works by Japan’s most influential photographers - including Daidō Moriyama, Yutaka Takanashi, Shōmei Tōmatsu, and Nobuyoshi Araki. Before the backdrop of the massive protest activities in Japan during this period, they created their images out of an awareness of being at a historical turning point between societal collapse and the search for a new Japanese identity. These works thus represent both an expression of this political transformation and a renewal of prevalent aesthetic norms.

This exhibition places Provoke in a historical context, focussing on the dialogue between the group’s photography in particular and contemporary protest photography and performance art in general.

Photography is examined as a document of - and/or a call to - protest against injustice: the period around 1960 saw numerous books published in connection with the first great wave of protests in Japan against renewal of the alliance with the USA. A few of them document the demonstrations themselves, while others deal with related themes - above all with the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The years during which Provoke was published saw these protests, which were staged employing great creativity, give rise to a captivating visual world of resistance to the illegal actions of large corporations and the despotism of the neoliberal Japanese state.

As the 1960s wore on, the protest movements intensified, leading to a flood of photo volumes and prints. The makers of Provoke - critic Kōji Taki, author Takuma Nakahira, critic and photographer Takuma Nakahira, and photographers Yutaka Takanashi and Daidō Moriyama - were of the opinion that journalistic photography had exhausted itself and that it was impossible to effect long-term change through direct political action. But even so, in their texts and their photos, they oriented themselves on the aesthetic strategies to which Japan’s protest photography had given rise: their works feature strikingly innovative graphic design that employs image sequences, pithy text/image combinations, dynamic outtakes, and the interplay of specifically chosen cheap materials (rough paper, low-resolution printing) with fold-outs and unusual formats.

The exhibition concludes by examining the Japanese photography of its chosen period as a variant of performance art and/or as documentation of live actions: Daidō Moriyama, Takuma Nakahira, and Nobuyoshi Araki are among those photographers who, around 1970, developed great interest in portraying darkroom work or other processes connected to the production of photographic prints as visible and active components of photographic creativity. They were preceded in their efforts by dance performers such as Tatsumi Hijikata, who worked with filmmakers and photographers, as well as by groups like the Hi-Red Center, which blurred the distinctions between photographic documentation and live actions in which photography and other media played a role.

But such influences worked both ways: directly inspired by the activities of the photographers of Provoke, Hi-Red Center member Jiro Takamatsu and Koji Enokura turned to photographic conceptual art in the early 1970s.

This exhibition is a coproduction between the Albertina, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Le Bal in Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago.










Today's News

February 1, 2016

Prestigious collection of works by Paul Signac on view at the Fondation de l'Hermitage

Exhibition provides a rare insight into the development of Alberto Giacometti's practice

Gagosian Gallery New York exhibits one of the late artist Chris Burden's last works

Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery presents a new interactive installation of the Cosmic Buddha

Two Temple Place reopens with exhibition of the ancient Egyptians at their most spectacular

Paul Kasmin's first solo exhibition of work by photographer Peter Hujar on view in New York

Exhibition at Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg spotlights compelling portraits

First retrospective exhibition of the work of Judit Reigl opens at the Allen Memorial Art Museum

Exhibition at the Albertina explores post-war photography magazine Provoke

A selection of recent paintings by Matthew Kolodziej on view at Carl Solway Gallery

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth opens exhibition of works by Glenn Kaino

Exhibition at Rodolphe Janssen highlights a part of the young Belgian art scene

Victoria Miro announces UK premiere of a new multi-screen film installation by Stan Douglas

Jumana Manna's first solo show in Sweden opens at Malmö Konsthall

Exhibition of small sculptures and big ideas opens at Postmasters

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image announces the world premiere of Daniel Crooks: Phantom Ride

'The Birth of a Nation' wins top prizes at Sundance

Bayern Munich's exhibition on Holocaust victims opens at Dachau

First nationally touring exhibition of American enameling in over 50 years revives the unsung art form

Krannert Art Museum exhibition explores perception of time through contemporary art

Transborder: Fabien Castanier Gallery opens group exhibition

Ancient Talmudic study principle reinterpreted by artist Jenny Odell in collaboration with Philip Buscemi

First exhibition in Germany by London-based artist duo BeckerHarrison on view at galerie hiltawsky

Tonico Lemos' first exhibition in a public UK gallery opens at De La Warr Pavilion




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful