Impossible Avant Garde The

"Despite the censorship of dissident material during the decade between the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, a number of photographers across Japan produced a versatile body of Surrealist work. In a pioneering study of their practice, Jelena Stojkovic draws on primary sources and extensive archival research and maps out art historical and critical contexts relevant to the apprehension of this rich photographic output, most of which is previously unseen outside of its country of origin. The volume is an essential resource in the fields of Surrealism and Japanese history of art, for researchers and students of historical avant-gardes and photography, as well as for readers interested in visual culture."--

Cover -- Halftitle Page -- Title Page -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Note on the Use of Japanese Language -- Introduction -- Part One 'New' Photography -- 1 Emergence -- Artistic intentions -- Beyond reality -- Abandoning control -- Professionals and amateurs -- 2 Photo-collages -- Two-way mirrors -- Constellation -- Fragmentation -- Overlaying, staging, re-photographing -- Part Two 'Avant-Garde' Photography -- 3 Images without texts -- Criticism -- Repetition -- Representation -- Printed matter -- 4 Coded revolution -- Photographs of objects

'Camera's automatism' -- 'Neo-Surrealism' -- Part Three 'Plastic' Photography -- 5 Materiality -- Abstraction -- Paranoia-criticism -- Scale and perspective -- Photographic technology -- 6 Locality -- Exchange -- Traditional aesthetics -- Everyday life -- Disconnection -- Conclusion -- Selected Biographies -- Selected Organizations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Imprint