Page 257 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

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CONCEPTUAL ART AND NEW TRENDS

Nasimul Khabir

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy organized an exhibition, on contemporary Asian art,
called ‘Asian Art Bangladesh’ in 1981. Later on, this particular exhibition started
taking place regularly as a Biennale. In the second exhibition in 1983, three Japanese
artists – Yoshio Kitayama, Shigeo Toya and Shinji Tsuneki – exhibited their works.
They used bamboo, paper, leather, pebbles, live plants, plaster of Paris, burnt wood
and such other non-permanent materials in creating their works. This exhibition
provided the local artists and viewers their first direct experience of the new
conceptual trend in art, which was different from the conventional works of painting
and sculpture (fig. 6.1).
Koichi Yasunaga, the curator of the Japanese presentation said, ‘In response to the
trends of Minimal Art and Conceptual Art in the United States and Europe from the
end of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s, in Japan, as well, there was movement
which denied the formality of “sculpture” and “painting” of the past and attempted to
re-examine the purpose of art itself. In Japan especially, installation involving the
fig. 6.1 Yoshio placement of “objects” themselves - such as wood, paper, rocks - at meeting places in
Kitayama, 3 Words the attempt to alter the relationship between man and “objects” formed the
Flow into the Sea, 1983, mainstream. The artists are called the “MONO-HA”..’ 1
wood, bamboo, paper, To express the identity of these Japanese artists of the new conceptual trend, Yasunaga
leather, lead, copper wrote, ‘Among them were artists who continued the work of the “MONO-HA” of the
1970s –artists who rejected the
conceptuality of a single piece, but
worked to convey a direct experience
through the use of elements such as wood,
paper and rocks, not merely brought out
as such, but worked and formed. In
addition, many artists appeared who
actively attempted to incorporate into
their own works elements which were
disavowed in the 1970s such as
illusionism, imagery, symbolism, etc. The
five young artists being displayed this