The Politics of Eros: Japanese art between 1960 and 1970

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  • エロスの政治学――1960-70年代の「日本の」美術

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Abstract

Eros was perceived in many parts of the world in the 1960s and 1970s as the conception of human liberation. Numerous artists attempted nude events and expressions of sexuality. However, the interpretations and expressions of Eros differed between men and women Japanese artists. Yasuhiro Yoshioka and Yoko Ono shared endeavors to “photograph genitals directly.” However, Yoshioka denied Eros by objectifying and silencing women while Ono’s video works were oriented toward the liberation of the female Eros. Simultaneously, Yayoi Kusama and Tetsumi Kudo presented phallic objects related to their identities. Kusama expressed herself as a woman liberated in control of Eros by pluralizing the phallus and daring to play with it. Kudo’s phallus symbolized the west, and he reconstructed the identity of the Japanese male in relation to the western idea of Eros through his renditions of the violent and repressive behaviors of the phallus.

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