EASC is pleased to announce that Namiko Kunimoto, assistant professor of art history at The Ohio State University has just released a book, The Stakes of Exposure: Anxious Bodies in Postwar Japanese Art published by University of Minnesota Press.  

From the University of Minnesota Press:

“The first major English-language study of Japan’s most important postwar artists.

How would artistic practice contribute to political change in post–World War II Japan? How could artists negotiate the imbalanced global dynamics of the art world and also maintain a sense of aesthetic and political authenticity? The Stakes of Exposure explores art, visual culture, and politics in postwar Japan from the 1950s to the 1970s, paying special attention to how anxiety and confusion surrounding Japan’s new democracy manifested in representations of gender and nationhood in modern art.

Through such pivotal postwar episodes as the Minamata Disaster, the Lucky Dragon Incident, the budding antinuclear movement, and the ANPO protests of the 1960s, The Stakes of Exposure examines a wide range of issues addressed by the period’s prominent artists, including Tanaka Atsuko and Shiraga Kazuo (key members of the Gutai Art Association), Katsura Yuki, and Nakamura Hiroshi.

Offering many full-color illustrations of previously unpublished art and photographs, as well as period manga, The Stakes of Exposure shows how contention over Japan’s new democracy was expressed, disavowed, and reimagined through representations of the gendered body.”

Hear what others are saying about her book:

“Kunimoto’s manuscript is exactly what the field of Japanese postwar art needs at this time.” —Alicia Volk, University of Maryland

“Namiko Kunimoto’s analysis navigates between history, historical art literature, and theoretical touchstones through her lucid readings.” —William Marotti, UCLA

Please see the Kunimoto_book_flyer or www.upress.umn.edu for order details.  Orders before May 1, 2017 can get a 30% discount with the code from the flyer.