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44-759: Historian Thomas Havens has called the Yomiuri Indépendant "the chief vehicle of postwar democracy for young visual artists in Japan who lacked connections with the clubby fine arts establishment" and "a bazaar of new ideas and materials." Among artists who exhibited artworks at the Yomiuri Indépendant included Genpei Akasegawa , Shūsaku Arakawa , Nobuaki Kojima , Tetsumi Kudо̄ , the Kyūshū-ha group, Natsuyuki Nakanishi , Tarō Okamoto , Ushio Shinohara , Mitsuko Tabe , Jirō Takamatsu , Katsuhiro Yamaguchi , and Jirō Yoshihara . The Yomiuri Indépendant Exhibition

88-619: A Bachelor of Arts degree in history, followed by a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley , in 1962. He remained at Berkeley to earn a doctorate in history in 1965, and began his teaching career at University of Toronto before moving to Connecticut College in 1966. While on the Connecticut College faculty, he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1976. Havens joined the University of Illinois faculty in 1990, where he taught for two years before accepting

132-422: A consumer icon (as in the sculptures of Haim Steinbach ). The context into which it is placed is also a highly relevant factor. The idea of dignifying commonplace objects in this way was originally a shocking challenge to the accepted distinction between what was considered art as opposed to not art . Although it may now be accepted in the art world as a viable practice, it continues to arouse questioning, as with

176-529: A generation of younger artists who would later go on to achieve renown in both Japan and overseas. It also provided a space for these artists to network with each other, contributing to the formation of a number of art groups and collectives, including the Neo-Dada Organizers , the Kyūshū-ha , Group Ongaku , Zero Dimension, Jikan-ha, and Hi-Red Center . It fostered the emergence of new forms of anti-art , pop art , and performance art , as well as

220-459: A group of art critics, art collectors, and gallery owners willing to accept, promote and patronize these artworks and artists. In these ways, the Yomiuri Indépendant played a crucial role in the emergence of postwar avant-garde art in Japan. Thomas Havens Thomas Robert Hamilton Havens (born November 21, 1939) is an American Japanologist. Havens is from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania , and graduated from Princeton University in 1961 with

264-487: A painting to represent hair. A well-known work by Man Ray is Gift (1921), which is an iron with nails sticking out from its flat underside, thus rendering it useless. Jose de Creeft began making large-scale assemblages in Paris , such as Picador (1925), made of scrap metal, rubber and other materials. The combination of several found objects is a type of readymade sometimes known as an assemblage . Another such example

308-598: A private collection, classified as a national treasure on May 7, 2021, by the French Ministry of Culture, including Des souteneurs encore dans la force de l'âge et le ventre dans l'herbe by Alphonse Allais , consisting of a green carriage curtain suspended from a wooden cylinder. This work was certainly exhibited at the Incoherents exhibitions in Paris between 1883 and 1893. According to Johann Naldi, this work

352-866: A subject of polarised debate in Britain throughout the 1990s due to the use of it by the Young British Artists . It has been rejected by the general public and journalists, and supported by public museums and art critics. In his 2000 Dimbleby lecture, Who's afraid of modern art , Sir Nicholas Serota advocated such kinds of "difficult" art, while quoting opposition such as the Daily Mail headline "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all". A more unexpected rejection in 1999 came from artists—some of whom had previously worked with found objects—who founded

396-420: A symbol. I have changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree. I didn't change its appearance. The actual oak tree is physically present, but in the form of a glass of water." In the 1980s, a variation of found objects emerged called commodity sculpture where commercially mass-produced items would be arranged in the art gallery as sculpture. The focus of this variety of sculpture

440-616: A teaching position at Berkeley. Havens served as a faculty member for his alma mater for six years, then in 1999, moved to Northeastern University . He is married to Karen Thornber, the Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and professor of East Asian languages and civilizations at Harvard University. Found object A found object (a calque from the French objet trouvé ), or found art ,

484-618: A work called Garbage Artwork that consisted of a pile of actual garbage. During the 1962 event, museum curators summarily removed artist Ushio Nakazawa's vinyl bag of red ink, over which visitors were supposed to walk and thereby "create art" by tracking red ink all over the museum. Later that year, the museum issued an edict banning a number of objects and artworks from its premises, including certain types of nude photographs deemed obscene, swords and other weapons, foodstuffs that might smell or rot, works producing loud noises, and artworks using water, sand, gravel or other materials that were damaging

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528-400: Is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already have a non-art function. Pablo Picasso first publicly utilized the idea when he pasted a printed image of chair caning onto his painting titled Still Life with Chair Caning (1912). Marcel Duchamp is thought to have perfected

572-680: Is Marcel Duchamp's Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? , consisting of a small birdcage containing a thermometer, cuttlebone, and 151 marble cubes resembling sugar cubes . By the time of the Surrealist Exhibition of Objects in 1936 a whole range of sub-classifications had been devised—including found objects, ready-made objects, perturbed objects, mathematical objects, natural objects, interpreted natural objects, incorporated natural objects, Oceanic objects, American objects and Surrealist objects. At this time Surrealist leader, André Breton , defined readymades as "manufactured objects raised to

616-473: Is an important part of the musique concrète genre. Found sounds have been used by acts including Cop Shoot Cop , Radiohead , Four Tet , The Books , and Björk . The musician Cosmo Sheldrake , who uses found sounds from the natural world in his music, has stated that incorporating the "soundscape" of ecosystems into music may be an effective means of communicating important messages about issues such as climate change. The found object in art has been

660-403: Is the case with readymades. Recent critical theory, however, would argue that the mere designation and relocation of any object, readymades included, constitutes a modification of the object because it changes our perception of its utility, its lifespan, or its status. One curator considers East Asian scholar's rocks to be early examples of found objects. Found and collected in natural settings,

704-403: Is the oldest known readymade and was a source of inspiration for Marcel Duchamp. Marcel Duchamp coined the term readymade in 1915 to describe a common object that had been selected and not materially altered in any way. Duchamp assembled Bicycle Wheel in 1913 by attaching a common front wheel and fork to the seat of a common stool. This was not long after his Nude Descending a Staircase

748-511: The Tate Gallery 's Turner Prize exhibition of Tracey Emin 's My Bed , which consisted literally of a transposition of her unmade and disheveled bed, surrounded by shed clothing and other bedroom detritus, directly from her bedroom to the Tate. In this sense the artist gives the audience time and a stage to contemplate an object. As such, found objects can prompt philosophical reflection in

792-401: The 1950s, one fundamentally more welcoming to avant-garde art. Indeed, the artists had little trouble finding alternative venues to display the works they had prepared for the 1964 Yomiuri Indépendant, showing them in a host of new, small-scale museums, galleries, and exhibitions that had cropped up in recent years. Although short-lived, the Yomiuri Indépendant provided exposure and notoriety to

836-598: The Yomiuri Indépendant because its corporate sponsorship by a major mainstream newspaper represented an affiliation with capitalism that was unpalatable to many artists, the narrow orthodoxy of the Nihon Indépendant made the Yomiuri Indépendant their only remaining choice. Artist Ushio Shinohara later recalled, "We entered our works into the Yomiuri Indépendant because that was the only place we could show them. There were hardly any museums or galleries in those days, and no patrons." For many of these younger artists,

880-541: The art critic Tamon Miki declared that the Yomiuri Indépendant gave him "the feeling of a performance space rather than of an exhibition site." Over time the management of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum began to balk at some of the more extreme artworks submitted to the Yomiuri Indépendant. In 1958, the Exhibition saw its first rejected artwork, when the Kyūshū-ha group tried to display

924-434: The concept several years later when he made a series of readymades , consisting of completely unaltered everyday objects selected by Duchamp and designated as art. The most famous example is Fountain (1917), a standard urinal purchased from a hardware store and displayed on a pedestal, resting on its back. In its strictest sense the term "readymade" is applied exclusively to works produced by Marcel Duchamp, who borrowed

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968-453: The dignity of works of art through the choice of the artist". In the 1960s found objects were present in both the Fluxus movement and in pop art . Joseph Beuys exhibited modified found objects, such as rocks with a hole in them stuffed with fur and fat, a van with sledges trailing behind it, and a rusty girder. In 1973, Michael Craig-Martin claimed of his work An Oak Tree , "It's not

1012-636: The exhibition was called the Nihon Indépendant Exhibition ( Nihon Andepandan Ten ), but this title was vigorously protested by the Japan Communist Party -affiliated Japan Fine Arts Association ( Nihon Bijitsukai ), which used the same name for its own exhibition. Finally in 1957, the Yomiuri relented and changed the name to "Yomiuri Indépendant," at which time the problem of the two rival "Nihon Indépendant" exhibitions

1056-399: The government-sponsored Nitten Exhibition and selectively advanced the careers of chosen protégés while blocking the paths of others. For its part, the management of the Yomiuri newspaper hoped that by sponsoring the exhibition the paper would harvest positive public relations and distance itself from the paper's recent collaboration with Japan's authoritarian wartime regime . Originally,

1100-516: The last-minute cancellation. Akasegawa noted ironically that by deliberately violating the museum's rules, "the unconscious destructive energy of the artworks had destroyed the space itself." Nevertheless, the Yomiuri was not incorrect in noting that the original objective of democratizing the art world had been achieved; by 1964, the Japanese art world was a vastly different space than it had been in

1144-431: The museum floors and walls. Art critics including Shūzō Takiguchi , Ichirō Hariu , Yoshiaki Tōno, and Tamon Miki immediately protested these new restrictions, calling them "very troubling for freedom of expression," but to no avail. The artists themselves also protested, and police had to be called in to physically remove a group of artists dancing outside the museum in their underwear in protest. Artists also simply ignored

1188-410: The observer ranging from disgust to indifference to nostalgia to empathy. As an art form, found objects tend to include the artist's output—at the very least an idea about it, i.e. the artist's designation of the object as art—which is nearly always reinforced with a title. There is usually some degree of modification of the found object, although not always to the extent that it cannot be recognized, as

1232-517: The pseudonym Richard Mutt sent me a porcelain urinal as a sculpture." Irene Gammel argues that the piece is more in line with the scatological aesthetics of Duchamp's friend, the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven , than Duchamp's. The other possible, and more probable, "female friend" is Louise Norton (later Varèse), who contributed an essay to The Blind Man discussing Fountain . Norton, who recently had separated from her husband,

1276-427: The restrictions, and the 1963 edition of the exhibition (which proved to be the last) featured, among other forbidden objects, a bath bucket filled with water, knives, glass fragments, loud and raucous use of a steel drum , and artworks incorporating perishable foodstuffs, including a French roll, udon , bean sprouts, and tofu . Barely a month before the 1964 Yomiuri Indépendant was scheduled to open, amid rumors that

1320-441: The rocks are changed only minimally for display, seldom beyond the addition of a display stand, and are meant to be contemplated as idealized representations of nature. Geological processes, chief among them erosion , give the rocks their distinctive qualities, rather than any modification by an artist or artisan. In 2017–2018, the French expert Johann Naldi  [ fr ] found and identified seventeen unpublished works in

1364-463: The second half of the 1950s, the exhibition gradually transformed into an artistic revolutionary space. In the late 1950s, it was still extremely difficult for unestablished younger artists to have their artworks shown in public venues. Access to galleries and exhibitions was restricted by selection committees dominated by established art societies that often screened entries in accordance with personal connections and ideologically-driven standards. Among

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1408-430: The surface of the canvas. First the artists used sand, then glass and nails, and then larger and larger “ found objects ” until finally the objects escaped the picture frame entirely and “slipped free of the canvas to stand proudly on the floor.” By 1958, the traditional artists had abandoned the exhibition, leaving behind radical new forms of painting, bizarre assemblages of found objects, and strange installations. By 1959,

1452-522: The term from the clothing industry (French: prêt-à-porter , lit.   ' ready-to-wear ') while living in New York, and especially to works dating from 1913 to 1921. Found objects derive their identity as art from the designation placed upon them by the artist and from the social history that comes with the object. This may be indicated by either its anonymous wear and tear (as in collages of Kurt Schwitters ) or by its recognizability as

1496-484: The time failed to reveal identical matches. The urinal, upon close inspection, is non-functional. However, there are accounts of Walter Arensberg and Joseph Stella being with Duchamp when he purchased the original Fountain at J. L. Mott Iron Works. The use of found objects was quickly taken up by the Dada movement, being used by Man Ray and Francis Picabia who combined it with traditional art by sticking combs onto

1540-555: The time has come for artists to manage their own affairs. Confident that we've attained our objectives, we of the Yomiuri Shimbun have concluded our sponsorship with last year's exhibition." The newspaper had clearly concluded that it had milked the exhibition for as much positive public relations value as it could, and that continuing the exhibition amid anger from museum officials and complaints from museum visitors in fact risked negative publicity. Many artists were stunned by

1584-736: The trash. One example of trash art is trashion , fashion made from trash. Marina DeBris takes trash from the beach and creates dresses, vests, and other clothes. Many organizations sponsor junk art competitions. Trash art may also have a social purpose, of raising awareness of trash. Creating and using trash art can expose people to hazardous substances. For instance, older computer and electronic components can contain lead (in solder and insulation). Jewelry made from these items may require careful handling. In France, trash art became known as "Poubellisme", art made from contents of "poubelles" (trash bins). Artists who create art from trash include: Found objects can also be used as musical instruments . It

1628-727: The two independent, unjuried exhibitions at that time, the Nihon Indépendant was dominated by socialist realism , reflecting its close association with the Communist Party and prevailing art trends at the time, leaving Yomiuri Indépendant as one of the only choices for aspiring young artists outside of the socialist realist mainstream to show their work. For example Genpei Akasegawa , a younger, unestablished artist at that time, initially submitted works to Nihon Indépendant, but felt increasingly unwelcome there amidst pressure to conform to socialist realist artistic orthodoxy. Although Akasegawa and other artists initially resisted submitting to

1672-405: The two weeks of the Yomiuri Indépendant constituted the premier event of the year, and they would spend much of the rest of the year preparing to showcase their creativity and hopefully one-up their peers in terms of daring and audacity. Akasegawa later recalled how in the final years of the 1950s, a sort of competition emerged at the Yomiuri Indépendant to see whose “painting” could extrude most from

1716-409: The upcoming artworks would be even wilder and more bizarre than ever before, the Yomiuri Shimbun suddenly announced that it was terminating its sponsorship of the exhibition, and when no new sponsor stepped forward, the Yomiuri Indépendant came to an end after 15 years of annual shows. In announcing the termination, the newspaper declared the exhibition's mission fully accomplished, stating, "We believe

1760-508: Was attracting the attention of critics at the International Exhibition of Modern Art . In 1917, Fountain , a urinal signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt", and generally attributed to Duchamp, confounded the art world. In the same year, Duchamp indicated in a letter to his sister, Suzanne Duchamp, that a female friend was centrally involved in the conception of this work. As he writes: "One of my female friends who had adopted

1804-518: Was established by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in 1949 in an effort to "democratize the art world" and foster free thinking and free expression. The mastermind behind the exhibition was journalist Hideo Kaidō , a member of the Yomiuri' s Culture Section. Kaidō detested the prewar hierarchy in Japanese fine art, in which small cliques of artists and art critics known informally as the Gadan (画壇) effectively controlled access to juried exhibitions such as

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1848-476: Was finally resolved. Around this same time, artists began to affectionately nickname the show the "Yomiuri Anpan." "Anpan" was an abbreviation of "Andepandan," but also a deliberate pun on sweet red bean buns, called " anpan " in Japanese . In the early years, the works shown at the exhibition tended to be rather conventional paintings submitted by older, well-established artists and artistic amateurs. However, in

1892-559: Was living at the time in an apartment owned by her parents at 110 West 88th Street in New York City, and this address is partially discernible (along with "Richard Mutt") on the paper entry ticket attached to the object, as seen in Stieglitz's photograph. Research by Rhonda Roland Shearer indicates that Duchamp may have fabricated his found objects. Exhaustive research of mundane items like snow shovels and bottle racks in use at

1936-515: Was on the marketing, display of products. These artists included Jeff Koons , Haim Steinbach , and Ashley Bickerton (who later moved on to do other kinds of work). One of Jeff Koons ' early signature works was Two Ball 50/50 Tank , 1985, which consisted of two basketballs floating in water, which half-fills a glass tank. A specific subgenre of found objects is known as trash art or junk art . These works primarily comprise components that have been discarded. Often they come quite literally from

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