Yukihito's Hint

By Kate Lim

Tokyo Gallery +BTAP has been organizing a series of exhibitions in Beijing under the umbrella theme of "Neo-Moroism" for the last four years since 2013. It is a handsomely scaled group show of artists from China, Korea and Japan, with the list of participating artists changing every year and involving venerable curators like Pi Daojian and Minemura Toshiaki as principal mentors. The idea of the exhibition was conceived by Tabata Yukihito, the gallery director who was inspired by the specific painting style known as "Morotai" (meaning hazy or vague style), which was initiated by a group of young Japanese artists in the early 20th century. Tabata supposes that "Morotai" can be a trope of an aesthetic tendency that evades the tendency of definitive depiction in favor of permeable boundaries, an idea that is shared by many artists of the three countries. To bring this topic to a deeper level, the scholars, curators and artists from the three countries have been engaged with vigorous discussions, the outcome of which is seeing a sumptuous amount of essays in exhibition catalogues. Tabata intends to keep the exhibition going for another several years until it reaches a superb, enduring quality to project to a Western art audience.

Tabata's plan is nothing less than the organizing of an exhibition that even a most ambitious museum director in any of the three countries would have been hesitant to be committed to. When asked why he wanted to do this museum-level project, he said: "I've been thinking about Asia. The status of Asia in general has risen beyond anyone's imagination and is still improving, and yet, in the matter of art, Western Europe and America are still given preeminence. People make a beeline to the museums in Europe or the States to see the artworks. Through my exhibition, I want to give them hints to the necessity of re-directing their attention to the Asian art. To be prepared for those moments that will come soon, we should form a coherent explanation for our art as a tool for persuasive and inspiring dialogue with them."

The fact that there is a disparity of the influential power of the Western art world and that of Asia is what most people working in the art industry in Asia are resigned to, however positive of a view of Asian art may be narrated by highlighting its long history and beautiful cultural heritage. It is an uncomfortable reality that frequents the mind of any conscientious scholar and curator of Asia. The authority to present works of art comes with a specific voice of narration of art, selecting only what pleases, excites or concerns their aesthetic soil. Places like Guggenheim or Tate Modern or Pompidou Center are not just physical venues, but forms of authority that decide and disseminate a specific voice and attitude towards art. This is all very well, but what is our own view of art? Why can't we offer them fresh perspectives, and not accept the rehashing of the same views? What's at stake is not about who is correct, but about whether we can converse on art on equal terms.

I heartily agree with Tabata, but I couldn't help asking him how Japan's specific historical precedent centering on "Morotai" can be helpful in creating a shared account of art of the three art communities. His answer was: "Morotai was a Japanese artistic response to modern art, and European modern art and Morotai more or less developed in parallel. Basically, I understand that there was an interconnected relationship between Impressionism and the spread of Japanese art to Europe. The birth and formation of the modern art was not exclusive to Europe, neither took place of its own accord. Also, as we all know, European modern art, in turn, affected American art. Tonalism in America was a European influence. Japan's artistic experience during the late 19th and early 20th century should be seen as a crucial part in this whole chain of interconnection. And we must also remember that Japan's cultural legacy came from China via Korea." Tabata's view of the history of modern art was truly global and enlightening.

He philosophically continued: "Few seem to be aware these days that artists of Eastern Asia, Europe and America once had this complicated dialogue and the present is part of such a historical procession. One had better re-look at the past rather than to try plunge into the future. The artists from China, Korea and Japan should have confidence in their own cultural legacy. The three countries were entangled in the past and afflicted with historical scars. We have to move on from there. And from this bigger picture of the world I mentioned just now, they should strive to form their own independent perspective of art, not restricted by the discourse given by the Western initiative."

Tabata's vision of art and his historical consciousness that underlie the "Neo-Morotai" exhibition filled me with incredulous enthusiasm. There are, however, realistic obstacles en route to the achievement of the desired result. One of them is that current art professionals are poorly educated in the modern art history of East Asia. A critic or a scholar may learn by heart, for example, what Clement Greenberg from New York wrote about modern art, but would not have an inkling of the artistic discourse advocated by Okakura Tenshin from Tokyo. Art education has been heavily focused on Western art, and even if teachers knew, their knowledge comes from a thin, superficial layer of Googling. To get Tabata's ‘hint' across to the global art world will be similar to the excruciating job of an artist who clinches the realization of a heightened sense of universality and interconnectedness through responding to the deepest corners of his or her own soul.

Kate Lim is director of Art Platform Asia, an independent curator and art writer. Contact her at kate.yk.lim@gmail.com.