6 from Rainbow to Confetti: the 1960S and Beyond
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6 From Rainbow to Confetti: The 1960s and Beyond the bokujinkai’s rary art, including the São Paulo Biennale (1957, international success 1959 and 1961), Carnegie International (1955, 1958 and 1961), Salon d’Octobre in Paris (1953), and Kas- y the early 1960s, the Bokujinkai’s in- sel’s Documenta (1959), along with numerous spe- ternational achievements had become truly cial exhibitions, such as “Japanese Calligraphy” at Bunprecedented for calligraphers. Robert the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1955), Motherwell notoriously called Inoue Yūichi “one of “Calligraphy in Contemporary Japanese Art,” the few great artists from the latter half of the 20th which toured Europe in 1955 and 1956, “Contem- century.”1 The Gutai leader Yoshihara Jirō said that porary Japanese Painting” at the Corcoran Gallery “Shiryū’s established expressive power and original- in Washington, D.C. in 1963, and “Modern Japa- ity make him one of the representative visual artists nese Calligraphic Painting” at the National Muse- from Japan,”2 and leading postwar Zen philosopher um of Modern Art in Sydney the same year (fi g. Hisamatsu Shin’ichi proclaimed that the fact “that 68). This is just a selection; there are too many to Morita’s sho has drawn more and more attention list here. This record was further enhanced by solo from the world at large suggests that modern man’s and group shows by the People of the Ink in Tokyo, deep-rooted concern for unshakable confi dence and Osaka, Paris, New York, London, Cologne, Brus- inner security in his daily existence fi nds expression sels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hanover, Berlin, here.”3 In confi rmation of their remarkable achieve- Rome, and more. Extended reviews of their work or ments, the Bokujinkai calligraphers found their way exhibitions were published in the American Wash- into the most infl uential overviews of abstract art, ington Post and New York Times, the French Le such as the canonical Abstract Painting by the French Monde, the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zei- art critic Michel Seuphor, and Herbert Read’s A tung and Die Zeit, and all prominent Japanese news- Concise History of Modern Painting.4 papers, not to mention countless regional publica- By the mid-1960s, the Bokujinkai’s art had trave- tions across the world. The People of the Ink led to fi ve continents. Their works were exhibited at featured in the 1956 art fi lm Calligraphie Japonaise the leading competitive platforms for contempo- by the Belgian abstract artist Pierre Alechinsky, which was fi lmed in Kyoto while Alechinsky was Inoue creating abstract calligraphy in his home atelier, fi g. 72. working together with the Bokujinkai. The fi lm 119 bokujinkai 68 Morita’s calligraphy (left) exhibited at the Salon d’Octobre in Paris in October 1953 next to paintings by Francis Picabia, Serge Poliakoff , and Jean Messagier, among others. Installation view published in Bokubi no. 32 (March 1954), p. 35 would later introduce the Bokujinkai’s art to Euro- pean audiences and win awards at various fi lm fes- tivals in the late 1950s (fi g. 69). The Bokujinkai also participated actively in such high-profi le cultural events as the Modern Art Fairs in Osaka in 1954 and 1956, the Montreal World Expo in 1967, the Osaka World Expo in 1970, and even a show jointly organized by UNESCO, “Mutual infl uences be- tween Japanese and Western arts” in Tokyo in 1968. It looked as if the Bokujinkai had made it. Their success seemed unassailable, as they were the fi rst calligraphers in the history of modern art to achieve such prominence and to make an impact so far be- 69 Morita Shiryū producing calligraphy in his atelier, minute yond their fi eld. Yet on closer inspection, these 12:57 in Alechinsky’s fi lm Calligraphie Japonaise (1956) achievements highlight a dichotomy between the Bokujinkai’s rising international success and their declining willingness to experiment and challenge sour in the mid-1950s,”5 while Osaki Shin’ichirō their audiences. Scholars working on the Bokujinkai notes that “from the 1960s onwards, the special is- invariably point to their major shift towards con- sues of Bokubi gradually switched from coopera- servatism in the late 1950s. Bert Winther-Tamaki tion with foreign artists and abstract painters to writes that “Morita’s enthusiasm for an interna- discussing works of classical calligraphy [koten], tional dialogue on calligraphic abstraction began to refl ecting the shift in Morita’s thinking.”6 120.