Kikuji Kawada

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Kikuji Kawada ( Japanese 川田 喜 久 治 , Kawada Kikuji ; born January 1, 1933 in Tsuchiura ) is a Japanese photographer . The co-founder of the VIVO group and representative of anti-naturalist photography became known primarily through his examination of the traces of World War II in post-war Japan ( Chizu. The Map ). His later works are, among other things, dedicated to art-historical subjects ( Seinaru sekai. Sacré Atavism ) or motifs from astronomy and nature ( Rasuto kosumoroji. The Last Cosmology ) and combine a subjectivist style with a universalist outlook.

Life

After completing an economics degree at Rikkyō University in Tokyo , the self-taught photographic artist Kikuji Kawada initially worked for the Shinchōsha publishing house from 1955 to 1959 . He has been a freelance photographer since 1959, when the Fuji Photo Salon devoted his first solo exhibition to him.

In the years 1957-1959 he took part in the exhibition series "Jūnin no me" ("Eyes of Ten") in the Konishiroku Photo Gallery , Tokyo. From the group of young photographers participating in these exhibitions, the cooperative VIVO emerged in 1959, of which Kawada was co-founder together with Ikkō Narahara , Shōmei Tōmatsu , Eikō Hosoe , Akira Satō and Akira Tanno . The aim of the group, which existed for only two years, was independence from the conventions of documentary and journalistic photography . Kawada turned away from realistic reportage photography at an early age and developed an independent, anti-naturalistic style that should determine most of his work.

From 1967 to 1969 Kawada taught at the Tama Art School in Tokyo. His work first gained international attention through the exhibition "New Japanese Photography" at the Museum of Modern Art , New York (1974).

In 1996, Kikuji Kawada received awards from the Japanese Photography Society and the Higashikawa International Photography Festival . In 2003 the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography dedicated a major retrospective to him under the title Theatrum Mundi , and in 2011 the Japanese Photographic Society presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his life's work.

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Early work

Before Kawada's great photographic cycles, the work The Sea (1959) on the subject of nuclear weapon testing was created . Kawada photographed Japanese children for the series Youth (1960), which is still close to the typical humanistic reportage photography practiced by leading photographers and in particular to the work of Kawada's early patron Ken Domon .

Chizu. The Map

In 1965, on the 20th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima , Kawada's 1959–1965 photo cycle was Chizu. The Map published in a book edition co-designed by graphic designer Kōhei Sugiura . As before in an exhibition under the same title at the Fuji Photo Salon in 1961, two photographic series were merged in the book, which deal with traces of the horrors of the Second World War and were initially designed for publication in the form of two separate volumes: One group of pictures shows views of the ruins of the exhibition building for industrial goods in Hiroshima (known as the "Atomic Bomb Dome", today a peace memorial in Hiroshima ) and of fortifications on Tokyo Bay , memorabilia (especially portraits as well as messages and objects left behind by Japanese soldiers) from the Etajima Museum of Naval History and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and all kinds of waste, including US consumer goods and a wrinkled Japanese national flag . The other group of images consists exclusively of abstract-looking detailed shots of the destroyed walls of the “Atomic Bomb Dome”.

The role of the title “map” proves to be both symbolic and metaphorical. On the one hand, one of the photographs shows a section of an early map of Japan that appears blackened. On the other hand, a text by Kenzaburō Ōe added to the first edition suggests an association between the appearance of the burnt, encrusted and weathered masonry that runs through the work with those of maps: “ I saw a map close to my wounded eyes. While it was nothing but a little piece of ground stained with heavy oil, it really appeared to me like a map of the world full of violence, in which I was to live henceforth. "(" I saw a map right in front of my wounded eyes. Although it was just a small piece of ground stained with thick oil, it truly seemed to me like the map of a world full of violence in which I was to live from now on. ")

Kawada's approach to the subject matter of the work has been compared to that of an archaeologist researching the evidence of his own era: “ I saw Kawada as an archeologist shifting [sic!] Through the relics of his time. Shards of recent history were uncovered like the remains of a distant age. "(" I saw an archaeologist in Kawada who sifted through the relics of his time. The shards of recent history came to light like the remains of a long-gone age. ") (Mark Holborn) An impending collective historical oblivion of post-war Japan, the train His modernization was in the process of erasing the traces of the war events, so Kawada set, like Shōmei Tōmatsu with 11:02 Nagasaki (1966), an independent work of remembrance of great intensity.

With Chizu. The Map , Kawada developed an expressive style, which is characterized by coarse-grained black and white with predominantly dark tonal values ​​and strongly excessive contrasts. He became one of the pioneers of a new Japanese photo avant-garde that began in the late 1960s. Chizu. The Map is now one of the most important photo books of the 20th century.

Seinaru sekai. Sacré Atavism

The title is as complex as the content of the multi-part cycle, which was mainly created in 1966–1969 and was published in book form in 1971, but was later expanded - while the Japanese Seinaru sekai can be translated as “Holy Worlds”, Kawada used a self-coined title as the second title Word combination from the English atavism ( atavism , reappearance of a property that has been overcome in developmental history) and the French antagonist sacré ("holy", "blessed"; but also: "damned", "cursed").

The cycle includes the parts Parco dei mostri (1966), Grotesque Garden (1969), The Fantastic Castle (also: The Castle; Ludwig II , 1969), Microcosmos (1966–1969), The Hell (1966–1969) and Wax Man in Town (also: Wax – Man – Town , 1966–1969), later expanded to include The Dream of the Stones (1976–1981). Kawada found the motifs for this cycle in sacred sculpture of the Romanesque and Gothic (depictions of saints and hell as well as allegories of sins from Saint-Pierre de Moissac , Sainte-Foy de Conques and the cathedral of Bourges ), in parks and palaces of Mannerism ( Parco dei Mostri near Bomarzo , Boboli Gardens in Florence , Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella , Hellbrunn Palace Park in Salzburg ) as well as in the romantic - historic castles of Ludwig II of Bavaria and in the naive architecture of the 20th century ( Palais idéal in Hauterives , Maison Picassiette in Chartres ) as well as in contemporary theme parks ( Tiger Balm Gardens in Singapore and Hong Kong on Chinese mythology ) and wax figure cabinets .

Thematically conspicuous is the accumulation of outsider counter-worlds in which their creators acted out bizarre fantasies: “ The many secret gardens, isolated from the world, isolate the powerful desires that infest humans and their naked interior worlds. ”(“ The many secret gardens, cut off from the world, hide the powerful desires that haunt people and their exposed inner worlds. ”) (Kyoko Jimbo) The parts of the cycle are united by a dark, contrasting style that defines the motifs Exaggerated into what seems unreal and emphasizes their intoxicating or nightmarish moment with often distorted, canted perspectives. The thematically seemingly disparate parts thus come together to form a panopticon of the irrational side of human nature, which is expressed, as it were atavistic, in pictorial works and art worlds of different epochs and cultural contexts: “ It is a study of the dark side of human nature, of the demonic, the primitive, the unconscious depths where the roots of eroticism and cruelty intertwine. "(" It is a study of the dark side of human nature, the demonic, the primitive, the unconscious depths where the roots of eroticism and cruelty intertwine. ") (Arthur Goldsmith)

Sekai gekijō. The Globe Theater

Under the title Sekai gekijō. The Globe Theater summarized Kawada photo cycles from three decades in a trilogy, which he published in book form in 1998: Los Caprichos (1969–1981), Rasuto kosumoroji. The Last Cosmology (1979-1997) and Car Maniac (1991-1998).

Los Caprichos ( Spanish , "whims", "quirky") is inspired by the graphic cycle of the same name by Francisco de Goya . In these partly black and white, partly colored pictures of Kawada, banal everyday motifs are given an enigmatic, at the same time grotesque and unsettling effect through surreal elements.

Rasuto Kosumoroji. The Last Cosmology consistently includes black and white recordings of astronomical and atmospheric phenomena ( solar eclipse , Venusian eclipse , cloud formations , polar lights, etc.), but also those of motifs from living nature. The former are sometimes related to human artifacts (“Helio-Spot and a Helicopter”, “The Sun and an Airship”) or references to the human calendar (“The Last Sunrise of Showa Era”, “The Last Eclipse of the Sun”) in 20th Century Japan ”). These references emphasize the elegiac character of the series and the sublime of its motifs.

Car Maniac consists of color photographs that Kawada preferred to take from the car. These are urban snapshots and complex image compositions, some of which are disorienting due to the use of reflections and combinations of interior and exterior space and are difficult to locate.

Publications (selection)

  • Chizu. The Map . Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, Tokyo 1965 (reprint: Getsuyosha, Tokyo 2005).
  • Seinaru sekai. Sacré Atavism . Shashin Hyoron-sha, Tokyo 1971.
  • Rasuto Kosumoroji. The Last Cosmology . 491, Tokyo 1995.
  • Sekai gekijō. The Globe Theater . Self-published, Tokyo 1998.

literature

  • Kikuji Kawada: Theatrum Mundi . Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2003.
  • Luisa Orto: Kawada Kikuji . In: Anne Wilkes Tucker, Dana Friis-Hansen, Kaneko Ryūichi, Takeba Joe: The History of Japanese Photography . Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 0-300-09925-8 , p. 347. (Short biography)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anne Wilkes Tucker, Dana Friis-Hansen, Kaneko Ryūichi, Takeba Joe: The History of Japanese Photography . Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 0-300-09925-8 , p. 217.
  2. ↑ Marc Feustel (ed.): Japan: A Self Portrait. Photographs 1945–1964 . Flammarion, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-08-030463-1 , p. 212.
  3. ↑ The Photographic Society of Japan Awards (English)
  4. ↑ Kyoko Jimbo: Celestial Residue . In: Kikuji Kawada: Theatrum Mundi . Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2003, p. 58.
  5. ↑ Ryūichi Kaneko, Ivan Vartanian: Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s . Aperture, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-59711-094-5 , p. 86.
  6. ↑ Kenzaburō Ōe: Map . Quoted from: Martin Parr, Gerry Badger: The Photobook. A History Vol. 1 . Phaidon Press, London 2004, ISBN 0-7148-4285-0 , p. 286.
  7. ^ Mark Holborn: Kawada Kikuji: From the West . In: Kikuji Kawada: Theatrum Mundi . Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2003, p. 13.
  8. ↑ Chihiro Minato: Japan and Photography . In: Michel Frizot (ed.): New history of photography . Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-8290-1327-2 , p. 691.
  9. ^ Vince Aletti: Kikuji Kawada. The Map. In: Andrew Roth (ed.): The Book of 101 Books. Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century . PPP Editions, New York 2001, ISBN 0-9670774-4-3 , pp. 174-177.
  10. ^ Martin Parr, Gerry Badger: The Photobook. A History Vol. 1 . Phaidon Press, London 2004, ISBN 0-7148-4285-0 , pp. 286-287.
  11. ↑ Kyoko Jimbo: Celestial Residue . In: Kikuji Kawada: Theatrum Mundi . Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2003, p. 61.
  12. ↑ Kyoko Jimbo: Celestial Residue . In: Kikuji Kawada: Theatrum Mundi . Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2003, p. 63.
  13. ↑ Arthur Goldsmith: Kikuji Kawada . In: Popular Photography , June 1975. p. 85.
personal data
SURNAME Kawada, Kikuji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 川田 喜 久 治 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese photographer
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Tsuchiura