VIVI (photography group)
Japanese postwar avant-garde photography collective (formed 1947)
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VIVI (VIVI社; VIVI-sha) was a Japanese postwar avant-garde photography collective founded in Nagoya in 1947 by Kansuke Yamamoto, Keiichirō Gotō, Minayoshi Takada, and Yoshifumi Hattori.[2][3] Photography historian Ryūichi Kaneko describes VIVI as the first postwar photographic collective in Nagoya.[4]
| VIVI (photography group) | |
|---|---|
| Other name(s) | VIVI-sha (VIVI社) |
| Known for | Postwar avant-garde photography collective based in Nagoya |
| Founded | 1947; Nagoya, Japan[1] |
| Location | Nagoya, Japan |
| Membership | |
| Founder(s) | Kansuke Yamamoto (山本悍右); Keiichirō Gotō (後藤敬一郎); Minayoshi Takada (高田皆義); Yoshifumi Hattori (服部義文)[1] |
| Notable members | Kansuke Yamamoto; Keiichirō Gotō; Minayoshi Takada; Yoshifumi Hattori |
| Art | |
| Art type | Photography collective |
| Style | Avant-garde photography |
| Movement | Postwar Japanese avant-garde photography |
In his history of photography in Nagoya, Jō Takeba discusses the group under the heading "Revival of the Avant-Garde" (前衛の復活).[5] The group's 1949 exhibition included Kiyoji Ōtsuji, Yasushi Takabayashi, and Teruyoshi Tokuyama, while works by Hans Bellmer were shown as a special contribution.[3]
History
Formation
In the late 1930s, avant-garde photographic activity in Nagoya was affected by wartime restrictions and censorship.[6] In 1939, Yamamoto was interrogated by the police and released on the condition that he cease publication of his Surrealist journal Yoru no Funsui.[7]
Yamamoto, Gotō, Takada, and Hattori formed VIVI in Nagoya in 1947.[2][3] A collection note published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for Gotō's Memorandum (1947) states that Gotō and his collaborators founded VIVI after the war to revive Nagoya's avant-garde scene.[6] In 1949, Yamamoto joined the Bijutsu Bunka Kyōkai, which established a photography section that year.[2]
Exhibitions
Published sources differ in their numbering of VIVI's exhibitions.[2][3] The Yamamoto chronology published by Tokyo Station Gallery in 2001 and a curriculum vitae published by Taka Ishii Gallery identify the exhibitions held in 1948, 1949, and 1950 as the first, second, and third VIVI exhibitions.[2][8] Soeda's later study identifies an additional exhibition in 1947 and numbers the Nagoya exhibitions held between 1947 and 1950 as the first through fourth.[3]
- November 17–19, 1947 – an exhibition at Maruzen's third-floor gallery in Nagoya, identified by Soeda as the first VIVI exhibition.[3]
- July 2–7, 1948 – an exhibition at Maruzen's third-floor gallery in Nagoya, identified by Soeda as the second VIVI exhibition.[3] The 2001 Yamamoto chronology and Taka Ishii Gallery identify the 1948 exhibition as the first VIVI exhibition.[2][8] Yamamoto exhibited Siegfried Phenomenon at a VIVI exhibition in 1948.[2] A further VIVI exhibition was held at Maruzen in Kyoto from July 22 to 27.[3]
- July 31–August 6, 1949 – an exhibition at Maruzen's third-floor gallery in Nagoya, identified by Soeda as the third VIVI exhibition and by the 2001 Yamamoto chronology as the second.[3][2] Kiyoji Ōtsuji, Yasushi Takabayashi, and Teruyoshi Tokuyama participated, while works by Hans Bellmer were shown as a special contribution.[3] According to the Yamamoto chronology, Yamamoto exhibited works including Yūutsu na sanpo, Jiikufurīdo gensō, A Chronicle of Drifting, and Icarus's Episode.[2]
- December 14–19, 1950 – an exhibition at Maruzen's third-floor gallery in Nagoya, identified by Soeda as the fourth VIVI exhibition and by the 2001 Yamamoto chronology and Taka Ishii Gallery as the third.[3][2][8] The Yamamoto chronology records Tsugio Tajima as a participant.[2]
Soeda writes that VIVI members increasingly presented their work through the Bijutsu Bunka Kyōkai after the 1950 exhibition and that VIVI subsequently became less clearly defined as a separate group.[3] He also notes that the VIVI name continued to appear for some time in later exhibition material.[3] Among works by VIVI members from these years, Yamamoto's Icarus's Episode (1949) is held by the Museum of Modern Art, Yamamoto's A Chronicle of Drifting (1949) is held by the J. Paul Getty Museum, and Gotō's Memorandum (1947) is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[9][10][6]
Membership
Founders
VIVI was founded by Yamamoto, Gotō, Takada, and Hattori.[3]
- Kansuke Yamamoto (山本悍右)
- Minayoshi Takada (高田皆義)
- Keiichirō Gotō (後藤敬一郎)
- Yoshifumi Hattori (服部義文)
Other participants
Other photographers took part in individual VIVI exhibitions.[3][2] The 1949 Nagoya exhibition included Kiyoji Ōtsuji (大辻清司), Yasushi Takabayashi (高林靖), and Teruyoshi Tokuyama (徳山暉芳).[3] Works by Hans Bellmer (ハンス・ベルメール) were shown at the same exhibition as a special contribution.[3] Tsugio Tajima (田島二男) participated in the December 1950 exhibition.[2]
Activities and photographic approach
An overview published by MEM describes VIVI as having been formed in 1947 to revive Nagoya's avant-garde spirit and notes that the group began organizing exhibitions.[11] The group also published the bulletin CARNET DE VIVI.[3][5] Its first issue appeared on June 20, 1948 and was published by Minayoshi Takada.[3][5]
The 2001 Yamamoto chronology quotes a review of the December 1950 VIVI exhibition that described the recurring exhibitions as bringing a fresh spirit and an avant-garde impulse to Nagoya's art scene.[12] The same review described VIVI's Surrealist works as humorous and cruel and referred to their search for new assemblages of objects through strongly sensory methods.[12]
In a 1950 survey of postwar avant-garde photography, critic Nobuya Abe wrote that Yamamoto's dream imagery could not simply be dismissed as an adult fairy tale and described it as creating a new beauty marked by sharp irony.[13] Minayoshi Takada also used experimental photographic techniques in his work.[11] MEM describes Takada's work as combining Surrealist and Constructivist approaches and notes his use of double negatives and transparencies to produce composite images.[11]
Reception and scholarship
In a 2018 review of an exhibition on Keiichirō Gotō and Subjective Photography, photography critic Kōtarō Iizawa described VIVI as an avant-garde photography group formed in 1947 that stood out at a time when realism dominated the Japanese photography world.[14]
Eiko Aoki discusses VIVI in her 2013 review of the Getty Museum exhibition Japan's Modern Divide.[15] Aoki notes that Yamamoto formed VIVI in Nagoya in 1947 and that the group provided a forum through which he could stage local exhibitions.[15] She also observes that, during much of his life, Yamamoto's activity was known largely within a relatively small circle.[15]
In his study of Keiichirō Gotō, Kazuho Soeda reconstructs four VIVI exhibitions between 1947 and 1950.[3] Soeda notes that members increasingly shifted their main venue of presentation to the Bijutsu Bunka Kyōkai and that VIVI became less clearly defined as a separate group after the 1950 exhibition.[3] He also points to the reuse of an illustration by Yamamoto from the prewar journal Yoru no Funsui in VIVI exhibition material.[3] Soeda discusses this reuse in connection with the group's awareness of continuity with prewar avant-garde activity while also seeking to move beyond it.[3]
In The Story of the "City of Photography": A History of Nagoya Photographic Movements, 1911–1972, Jō Takeba places VIVI under the heading "Revival of the Avant-Garde".[5] Takeba discusses VIVI within a chapter on the postwar relationship between realism and Subjective Photography.[5] The book records the group's bulletin as CARNET DE VIVI.[5]
Later activities
In 1953, Yamamoto joined Gotō, Takada, Tatsuo Kondō, and others in forming the photography group Mado (窓).[16] In 1955, Yamamoto formed the Tōkai photographers' group Honō (炎) with Gotō, Tatsuo Kondō, Katsuhiko Okazaki, Kaoru Utsumi, and others.[16] Materials relating to VIVI, including the first issue of CARNET DE VIVI from June 1948, were later included in Nagoya City Art Museum documentation of the city's photography history.[17]