Neo-Dada Organizers

also: Neo-Dadaism Organizers · Neo-Dada

school 1960-1962 Japan

The Neo-Dada Organizers were a short-lived but influential Japanese art collective formed in 1960 by Masunobu Yoshimura, who hosted the group at his Arata Isozaki-designed 'White House' atelier in Shinjuku. Around fifteen young artists - among them Genpei Akasegawa, Shūsaku Arakawa, Sayako Kishimoto and Ushio Shinohara - staged exhibitions and street 'actions' built on destruction: galleries filled with garbage, furniture smashed to jazz, bodies smeared with paint, bulbs, and leaflets. The critic Ichirō Hariu called their spectacles 'savagely meaningless'; Yoshiaki Tōno's phrase 'anti-art' stuck. Politically charged by the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, they fused artistic and political revolt. After three official exhibitions in 1960 the group faded - Yoshimura married and left for New York in 1962 - but its members seeded the anti-art scene, from Hi-Red Center to later performance art.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Destructive actions: hacking at art with axes, punching inked paper (Shinohara's boxing painting)
  • Found objects and garbage piled into galleries as raw material
  • The human body as medium - nudity, paint, lightbulbs, and self-harm gestures
  • Media-savvy spectacle staged for photographers and television cameras
  • Deliberate shock and provocation against art-world humanism and imported abstraction
  • Fluid, open membership and collaborative happenings across Tokyo's streets and studios

Key figures

  • Masunobu Yoshimura (1932-2011) — Founder and host of the group at his Shinjuku 'White House' atelier
  • Genpei Akasegawa (1937-2014) — Member who theorized the group's 'creative destruction' and later co-founded Hi-Red Center
  • Shūsaku Arakawa (1936-2010) — Member known for grotesque costumed performances; later an internationally known artist in New York
  • Ushio Shinohara (b. 1932) — Member who wrote the group's 1960 manifesto and invented the ink 'boxing painting'

Example works

  • Anpo Commemoration Event — Neo-Dada Organizers (1960)
  • Beach Show — Neo-Dada Organizers (1960)
  • Bizarre Assembly — Neo-Dada Organizers (1960)

Sources

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