WAVE | New Currents in Japanese Graphic Arts

Japanese comic book, or manga, illustration has deep roots in 12th-century painted picture scrolls, pre-modern woodblocks prints and books, and early 20th-century magazines. After World War II, influenced by American comic books and cartoons, a modern manga style evolved with visual conventions that continue today in Japanese comic books and in Japanese animation, or anime. The popular manga/anime style features strong lines, expressive dialogue bubbles, unique frames and abstract background mood effects. Characters are given large eyes, small mouths and emotional detailing, like sweat drops for anxiety, popping veins for anger and bold parallel lines for horror or disgust. In this exhibition, artists working in this style include Kenichiro Mizuno, Katsuya Terada and Motohiro Hayakawa. 

In the 1970s, an underground manga movement began with the magazine Garo, in which artists created illustrations that intentionally looked poorly drawn compared to the slick look of mainstream manga. Known as heta-uma (“poorly drawn but well-conceived”), the style was pioneered and embraced by Teruhiko Yumura, Yoshikazu Ebisu and Takashi Nemoto and has validated the work of many of today’s young manga and graphic artists, whose works seem unpolished but are very emotionally expressive. In this exhibition, although his style is highly polished, artist Suzy Amakane embraces the spirit of heta-uma.

The Pop Art Movement that emerged in the 1950s in the U.S. and U.K. reached Japan soon afterwards. Andy Warhol’s ability to bridge the commercial and fine art worlds inspired Keiichi Tanaami (b.1936), whose bold, dynamic designs are packed full of dreamlike figures, popular motifs and powerful characters. Similarly, the fantastic battles scenes of Motohiro Hayakawa (b.1974) evoke the psychedelic pop art of the 1960s and 70s. Harumi Yamaguchi’s glossy images of strong, liberated women graced Japanese ad campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, while Hiroshi Nagai’s vivid poolside scenes became iconic images, appearing on record album covers in the 1980s.

The Photorealism movement evolved in U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s from Pop Art, largely in response to abstract expressionism and the abundance of photography. It also inspired Japanese artists including Hajime Sorayama (b.1947), who has depicted female robots and mechanical dinosaurs with luminous detail, and Yoko Kawamoto (b.1967), who elevates junk piles and quarries into hyper-realistic landscapes. More recently, Mayu Yukishita recreates a darker reality in her “super-real” paintings.

WAVE exhibition-related programs are scheduled for the coming months. Subscribe to receive future JAPAN HOUSE LA Newsletters, visit the Events Page and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more information.​