Papers by Olga Isaeva
Globalizing the Avant-Garde, 2024
Olga Isaeva looks at the modern and avant-garde art of prewar Japan. Examining the dynamics of th... more Olga Isaeva looks at the modern and avant-garde art of prewar Japan. Examining the dynamics of the interactions of Japanese artists with the European avant-garde, starting with the observation that imitation and originality did not have the same weighting in Japanese art circles as in Europe, and going on to examine the Japanese Futurists, Shirakabaha, and the influence of Japan on Varvara Bubnova.
Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques, 2023
This paper problematizes the role two migrant artists David Davidovich Burliuk and Varvara Dmitre... more This paper problematizes the role two migrant artists David Davidovich Burliuk and Varvara Dmitrejenva Bubnova played in (re)defining the Japanese pre-war avant-gardes during the Taishō period (1912–1926). Careful consideration is given to the contextually based artistic practice in relation to the specific Japanese history of modernization, the establishment of art institutions, and state-controlled exhibition systems on one hand. On the other hand, however, an argument is made for complicating this context with multipolar and yet entangled avant-gardes composed of many histories that connect and diverge at the same time. The primary focus lies on closely describing and highlighting these profound connections, encounters, and exchanges, regardless their length or intensity. The article aims to trace and discuss the experiences of the two migrant artists who redefined themselves within the local context, based on the choices they made and the barriers they faced.
Mutual Images, 2018
Beginning first with a general overview of the term avant-garde, this paper next examines roughly... more Beginning first with a general overview of the term avant-garde, this paper next examines roughly Meiji politics as one of the core reasons behind the perception of the early Japanese avant-garde in the 1920s as a simple imitation of the European model. Radical avant-garde groups such as MAVO and Sanka will be introduced as main examples for the movement, which questioned the foundation of modern art and avant-garde in Japan. Their tools for achieving this goal in the form of tendencies toward transgressions can be located in the diversity of artistic styles and genres, in the blurring of the boundary between the so-called high and low art, and in the passing from the visible to the invisible. The resulting performative act—of demonstrating the new movement in the form of a manifesto as an artistic practice and the elimination of the boundaries between the artwork and the audience—is outstanding.
From "Japan and Asia: representations of selfness and otherness", edited by Marco Pellitteri, (Mutual Images, Vol. 4), 2018, 6–33.
THINK.IAFOR.ORG, 2017
Using the example of collage and montage artworks by Kawabe Masahisa (1901–1990), Murayama Tomoyo... more Using the example of collage and montage artworks by Kawabe Masahisa (1901–1990), Murayama Tomoyoshi (1901–1977) and Shibuya Osamu (1900–1963), Olga Isaeva of the University of Bonn, Germany, illustrates how found everyday objects and fragments of reality provided 1920s Japanese avant-garde artists with tools to grasp the modern time and the role of art, the artist, and, most significantly, of the audience, in an article based on research presented at The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2017.
https://think.iafor.org/art-and-everyday-life-early-avant-garde-in-1920s-japan/
Tokyo in den zwanziger Jahren: Experimentierfeld einer anderen Moderne? , 2017
Neue Spielräume wurden auch von den Künstlern der Gruppe Mavo ausgelotet, die das Verdienst für s... more Neue Spielräume wurden auch von den Künstlern der Gruppe Mavo ausgelotet, die das Verdienst für sich verbuchen kann, Avantgarde-Kunst in Japan eingeführt zu haben. Olga Isaeva versucht dabei, die vorherrschenden Zentrum-Peripherie-Beziehungen in der Avantgarde-Bewegungen in Frage zu stellen, indem sie auf diese radikale Bewegung fokussiert, die in Japan entstanden ist. Vor dem Hintergrund einer Darstellung der Entstehung der Avantgarde-Bewegung in Europa setzt sich Isaeva, mit den internen Konflikten und Debatten innerhalb der Gruppe auseinader, die von einem Gegensatz zwischen Befürwortern einer eigenständigen japanischen Avantgarde-Kunst und Vertretern geprägt war, die sich auf westliche Vorbilder beriefen. Darüber hinaus wird ausgeführt, auf welche Schwierigkeiten die Künster trafen, die aus den Besonderheiten des Kunst- und Ausstellungssystems erwuchsen, das während der Meiji-Zeit etabliert worden war. In Ermangelung geeigneter Ausstellungsmöglchkeiten wählte die Gruppe Mavo den Weg in die Öffentlichkeit und machte durch Aktionen auf sich aufmerksam, die auf der Straße oder in Parks stattfanden, was auch zu dem von den Mavoisten vertretenen Anspruch passte, Kunst und Alltag zu verbinden. Isaeva kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die Gruppe sich letztlich mit den von vielen als chaotisch empfundenen Bedingungen der Modernisierung auseinadersetzte, indem sie diese mittels einer riesigen Bandbreite von Ausdrucksformen künstlerisch verarbeitete - ein Projekt, das im Japan der zwanziger Jahre zunehmend auf fruchtbaren Nährboden stieß.
From: "Tokyo in den zwanziger Jahren. Experimentierfeld einer anderen Moderne?" edited by Stephan Köhn, Chantal Weber, Volker Elis, (= Kulturwissenschaftliche Japanstudien, Band 9), Wiesbaden 2017.
Conference Presentations by Olga Isaeva
Artists on the Move: Transnational and Transcultural Perspectives on Migration from the (former) Russian Empire, 1880–1939, Online conference, Yale MacMillan Center Russian, East-European, and Eurasian Studies, 2024
This paper will problematize the role the migrant artist David Davidovich Burliuk played in (re)d... more This paper will problematize the role the migrant artist David Davidovich Burliuk played in (re)defining the Japanese pre-war avant-gardes during the Taishō period (1912–1926). Although Japan could be seen as a “transit country” for the artist on his way to New York, this two-year stay from 1920–22 did not limit his artistic explorations. After realizing his starting position in Japan held tremendous potential due to the modernization of the state, the high appreciation of Western art, and Western-style painting (Yōga 洋画), Burliuk found fruitful grounds for his artistic theories and methods, namely those of Futurism. As he was surrounded by like-minded Japanese colleagues, they would together work on a global definition of Futurism. However, this being said, the contrast between Burliuk’s image of Japan and the reality of active artistic production could not have been more different.
On the one hand, this presentation will give a careful consideration to the contextually based artistic practice in relation to the specific Japanese history of modernization, the establishment of art institutions, and state-controlled exhibition systems. On the other hand, however, the paper will make an argument for complicating this context with multipolar and yet entangled avant-gardes composed of many histories that connect and diverge at the same time. The primary focus lies on closely describing and highlighting these profound connections, encounters, and exchanges, regardless their length or intensity. The paper aims to trace and discuss the experiences of the Ukrainian artists who redefined himself within the local context, based on the choices he made and the barriers he faced. It will further argue that Burliuk’s artistic approach and understanding of Futurism, drawn upon his Ukrainian origin, is an important lens to analyze his stay in Japan and the artworks he painted while being there.
Modern Japan History Workshop, University of Tokyo, 2023
This paper will critically address the role two migrant artists David Davidovich Burliuk and Varv... more This paper will critically address the role two migrant artists David Davidovich Burliuk and Varvara Dmitrejenva Bubnova played in (re)defining the Japanese pre-war avant-gardes during the Taishō period (1912-1926). Careful consideration will be given to the contextually based artistic practice in relation to the specific Japanese history of modernization, the establishment of art institutions, and state-controlled exhibition systems on one part. On the other hand, however, I will make an argument for complicating this context with a multipolar and yet entangled avant-gardes composed of many histories that connect and diverge at the same time. Showing the example of the Japanese Futurist Art Association and their follow-up formations, this paper will illustrate the process of applying, changing, and translating the European avant-gardes within the local context. Moving on to the case studies, the following core question will be addressed: How do the activities of the migrant artists reflect the Japanese avant-gardes? How could their choices be read as comments on the time they are involved in and the barriers they are faced with and trying to overcome?
European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (EAM) 8th Biennial Conference, NOVA University of Lisbon – School of Social Sciences and Humanities (NOVA FCSH), 2022
Why does art historical research still operate in terms of the “original” European Avant-Garde in... more Why does art historical research still operate in terms of the “original” European Avant-Garde in opposition to the “other” Non-Western Avant-Garde? Why the European Avant-Garde is still held as a standard in order to address whether the “other” will “reproduce the dynamics of the original European avant-gardes” or not?
This paper will critically address the issue of “original” and “copy” using the example of the Japanese Avant-Garde movement of the 1920s. Historical developments led to interconnections of Japanese and European art - on the one hand in Europe due to the spread of Japanese art in the course of world exhibitions, and on the other hand in Japan with the government's modernization strategy. By creating art works from everyday objects through montage or collage techniques and thus using a reference to the Western Avant-Garde, Japanese artists such as Murayama Tomoyoshi were accused by contemporaries and art historical researchers of lack of originality. The definition of a Western Avant-Garde, as I believe, in the sense of a teleology of the always new and the originality paradigm of the Western Modernism is thus not applicable to a non-Western Avant-Garde.
To gain a multi-perspective approach of the active artistic production of the Avant-Garde in Japan considering its context, I will deny art historical categories of original, imitation, center, periphery, influence, reception, and any thought of progress and "purity" in art. Instead, I will introduce briefly a transcultural approach focusing on contact relationships between artists who transcended geographical borders. Using the particular example of the Ukrainian artist David Burliuk, who stayed in Japan between 1920 and 1922, I will address the question of how and where the exchange between the migrant artist with local cultures and aesthetics took place while focusing on transformations, dissonances, and frictions within these contact relationships.
1st Swiss Asia Society Japan Workshop "Borders, Thresholds, Barriers", University of Geneva, 2022
This presentation will address the transcultural character of the artistic avant-
garde movement ... more This presentation will address the transcultural character of the artistic avant-
garde movement in the 1920s Japan, focusing on the exchange relationships between Japanese, Ukrainian, and Russian artists that crossed geographical and cultural borders. Using the example of Ukrainian artist David Burliuk and Russian artist Varvara Bubnova, I will explore how and where the exchange between migrant artists and local culture took place in the 1920s Tokyo, highlighting transformations, dissonances, and frictions within these contact relations. Transcultural art history will provide a methodological approach to go beyond an additive broadening of art history and consider transformational processes based on cultural encounters. I am less interested in creating fixed structures of analysis that coexist and relate
to each other through flows or transfers, but rather in how these structures constitute themselves. Since culture is in a constant process of emergence and renewal, historical boundaries should not simply be taken as given. Similarly, time and space are not seen as linear or homogeneous, but rather determined by the logic of circulating practices. In this context, the relationship between the global and the local is crucial. The local needs to break out of the narrow space of the alternative and instead enter into a relationship with global developments. In doing so, transcultural mobility generates a new awareness of locality in the intersections of spaces, cultures, and practices. Becoming aware of locality means considering it both as a space for aesthetic practice and as a discursive space for
self-reflection.
The 26th Asian Studies Conference Japan (ASCJ), Online, 2022
The paper will address the transcultural character of the artistic Avant-Garde movement in 1920s ... more The paper will address the transcultural character of the artistic Avant-Garde movement in 1920s Japan and particularly pay attention to exchange relationships between Japanese, Ukrainian and Russian artists, who transcended geographical and cultural borders. Considering the concepts of diverse “modernisms” (referring to Partha Mitter) and of “Transmoderne” (referring to Christian Kravagna), it focuses on the question if and how a mutual transformation between these cultural producers occurred. The working hypothesis is that transcultural interactions or the so-called “entangled histories” enable insights into the active artistic production of the Japanese Avant-Garde within its historical context, while challenging the widely accepted canon of western art history and its categories of originality, imitation, center, periphery, influence, reception and any thought of progress and purity in art. This paper will introduce the Ukrainian Cubo-Futurist David Burliuk, the Russian Constructivist Varvara Bubnova and their truly impactful stay in 1920s Japan by analyzing art works, joint exhibitions and publications.
16th International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS), Online, 2021
This paper will focus on the transmodern character of the Avant-Garde movement in 1920s Japan by ... more This paper will focus on the transmodern character of the Avant-Garde movement in 1920s Japan by paying attention to the exchange between Japanese, Ukrainian, and Russian artists.
6. Deutsch-Asiatischer Studientag Literatur- und Geisteswissenschaften, 2020
Basierend auf dem Dissertationsprojekt der Verfasserin zum transkulturellen Charakter innerhalb d... more Basierend auf dem Dissertationsprojekt der Verfasserin zum transkulturellen Charakter innerhalb der künstlerischen „Avantgarde“ im Japan der 1920er-Jahre soll der Vortrag konkrete Beispiele der Austauschbeziehungen zwischen japanischen, indischen und russischen Künstler*innen und Intellektuellen darstellen.
Mutual Images Workshop: Japan and Asia: Representations of Selfness and Otherness, 2017
Using the example of Avant-Garde in Japan during the 1920s and 30s this paper will put these move... more Using the example of Avant-Garde in Japan during the 1920s and 30s this paper will put these movements into the context of their inspiration by the European Avant-Garde and their struggle to define what Japanese modern art was in order to unpack uneven and complex legacy of Meiji in the early Showa period. The counterpart of the Japanese Avant-Garde can be seen besides the bourgeoisie society also, to put it in Murayama’s words in “the enslavement by the West”. He was rebelling against the conservative, hierarchical, and autocratic art institution and their claims of the superiority of the western culture.
The Asian Conference on Arts and Humanities, 2017
This paper takes a close look at the Avant-Garde movements in Japan during the 1920s/30s and thei... more This paper takes a close look at the Avant-Garde movements in Japan during the 1920s/30s and their practice of the "collage/ montage" technique. By analyzing art works and theoretical writings by Kawabe Masahisa (1901-1990), Murayama Tomoyoshi (1901-1977), Shibuya Osamu (1900-1963) and Ei-Q (1911-1960) the aim of this research is to explore the aspects of destruction in the illusionistic depiction of space and the change in the narrative unity within the collage and montage pieces.
台五大学大学院生美術史研究交流会 , 2016
Presentation given at the Japan-Taiwan Five University Art History Graduate Students’ Symposium 2... more Presentation given at the Japan-Taiwan Five University Art History Graduate Students’ Symposium 2016 on the international dimension of the Avant-Garde
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Papers by Olga Isaeva
From "Japan and Asia: representations of selfness and otherness", edited by Marco Pellitteri, (Mutual Images, Vol. 4), 2018, 6–33.
https://think.iafor.org/art-and-everyday-life-early-avant-garde-in-1920s-japan/
From: "Tokyo in den zwanziger Jahren. Experimentierfeld einer anderen Moderne?" edited by Stephan Köhn, Chantal Weber, Volker Elis, (= Kulturwissenschaftliche Japanstudien, Band 9), Wiesbaden 2017.
Conference Presentations by Olga Isaeva
On the one hand, this presentation will give a careful consideration to the contextually based artistic practice in relation to the specific Japanese history of modernization, the establishment of art institutions, and state-controlled exhibition systems. On the other hand, however, the paper will make an argument for complicating this context with multipolar and yet entangled avant-gardes composed of many histories that connect and diverge at the same time. The primary focus lies on closely describing and highlighting these profound connections, encounters, and exchanges, regardless their length or intensity. The paper aims to trace and discuss the experiences of the Ukrainian artists who redefined himself within the local context, based on the choices he made and the barriers he faced. It will further argue that Burliuk’s artistic approach and understanding of Futurism, drawn upon his Ukrainian origin, is an important lens to analyze his stay in Japan and the artworks he painted while being there.
This paper will critically address the issue of “original” and “copy” using the example of the Japanese Avant-Garde movement of the 1920s. Historical developments led to interconnections of Japanese and European art - on the one hand in Europe due to the spread of Japanese art in the course of world exhibitions, and on the other hand in Japan with the government's modernization strategy. By creating art works from everyday objects through montage or collage techniques and thus using a reference to the Western Avant-Garde, Japanese artists such as Murayama Tomoyoshi were accused by contemporaries and art historical researchers of lack of originality. The definition of a Western Avant-Garde, as I believe, in the sense of a teleology of the always new and the originality paradigm of the Western Modernism is thus not applicable to a non-Western Avant-Garde.
To gain a multi-perspective approach of the active artistic production of the Avant-Garde in Japan considering its context, I will deny art historical categories of original, imitation, center, periphery, influence, reception, and any thought of progress and "purity" in art. Instead, I will introduce briefly a transcultural approach focusing on contact relationships between artists who transcended geographical borders. Using the particular example of the Ukrainian artist David Burliuk, who stayed in Japan between 1920 and 1922, I will address the question of how and where the exchange between the migrant artist with local cultures and aesthetics took place while focusing on transformations, dissonances, and frictions within these contact relationships.
garde movement in the 1920s Japan, focusing on the exchange relationships between Japanese, Ukrainian, and Russian artists that crossed geographical and cultural borders. Using the example of Ukrainian artist David Burliuk and Russian artist Varvara Bubnova, I will explore how and where the exchange between migrant artists and local culture took place in the 1920s Tokyo, highlighting transformations, dissonances, and frictions within these contact relations. Transcultural art history will provide a methodological approach to go beyond an additive broadening of art history and consider transformational processes based on cultural encounters. I am less interested in creating fixed structures of analysis that coexist and relate
to each other through flows or transfers, but rather in how these structures constitute themselves. Since culture is in a constant process of emergence and renewal, historical boundaries should not simply be taken as given. Similarly, time and space are not seen as linear or homogeneous, but rather determined by the logic of circulating practices. In this context, the relationship between the global and the local is crucial. The local needs to break out of the narrow space of the alternative and instead enter into a relationship with global developments. In doing so, transcultural mobility generates a new awareness of locality in the intersections of spaces, cultures, and practices. Becoming aware of locality means considering it both as a space for aesthetic practice and as a discursive space for
self-reflection.
From "Japan and Asia: representations of selfness and otherness", edited by Marco Pellitteri, (Mutual Images, Vol. 4), 2018, 6–33.
https://think.iafor.org/art-and-everyday-life-early-avant-garde-in-1920s-japan/
From: "Tokyo in den zwanziger Jahren. Experimentierfeld einer anderen Moderne?" edited by Stephan Köhn, Chantal Weber, Volker Elis, (= Kulturwissenschaftliche Japanstudien, Band 9), Wiesbaden 2017.
On the one hand, this presentation will give a careful consideration to the contextually based artistic practice in relation to the specific Japanese history of modernization, the establishment of art institutions, and state-controlled exhibition systems. On the other hand, however, the paper will make an argument for complicating this context with multipolar and yet entangled avant-gardes composed of many histories that connect and diverge at the same time. The primary focus lies on closely describing and highlighting these profound connections, encounters, and exchanges, regardless their length or intensity. The paper aims to trace and discuss the experiences of the Ukrainian artists who redefined himself within the local context, based on the choices he made and the barriers he faced. It will further argue that Burliuk’s artistic approach and understanding of Futurism, drawn upon his Ukrainian origin, is an important lens to analyze his stay in Japan and the artworks he painted while being there.
This paper will critically address the issue of “original” and “copy” using the example of the Japanese Avant-Garde movement of the 1920s. Historical developments led to interconnections of Japanese and European art - on the one hand in Europe due to the spread of Japanese art in the course of world exhibitions, and on the other hand in Japan with the government's modernization strategy. By creating art works from everyday objects through montage or collage techniques and thus using a reference to the Western Avant-Garde, Japanese artists such as Murayama Tomoyoshi were accused by contemporaries and art historical researchers of lack of originality. The definition of a Western Avant-Garde, as I believe, in the sense of a teleology of the always new and the originality paradigm of the Western Modernism is thus not applicable to a non-Western Avant-Garde.
To gain a multi-perspective approach of the active artistic production of the Avant-Garde in Japan considering its context, I will deny art historical categories of original, imitation, center, periphery, influence, reception, and any thought of progress and "purity" in art. Instead, I will introduce briefly a transcultural approach focusing on contact relationships between artists who transcended geographical borders. Using the particular example of the Ukrainian artist David Burliuk, who stayed in Japan between 1920 and 1922, I will address the question of how and where the exchange between the migrant artist with local cultures and aesthetics took place while focusing on transformations, dissonances, and frictions within these contact relationships.
garde movement in the 1920s Japan, focusing on the exchange relationships between Japanese, Ukrainian, and Russian artists that crossed geographical and cultural borders. Using the example of Ukrainian artist David Burliuk and Russian artist Varvara Bubnova, I will explore how and where the exchange between migrant artists and local culture took place in the 1920s Tokyo, highlighting transformations, dissonances, and frictions within these contact relations. Transcultural art history will provide a methodological approach to go beyond an additive broadening of art history and consider transformational processes based on cultural encounters. I am less interested in creating fixed structures of analysis that coexist and relate
to each other through flows or transfers, but rather in how these structures constitute themselves. Since culture is in a constant process of emergence and renewal, historical boundaries should not simply be taken as given. Similarly, time and space are not seen as linear or homogeneous, but rather determined by the logic of circulating practices. In this context, the relationship between the global and the local is crucial. The local needs to break out of the narrow space of the alternative and instead enter into a relationship with global developments. In doing so, transcultural mobility generates a new awareness of locality in the intersections of spaces, cultures, and practices. Becoming aware of locality means considering it both as a space for aesthetic practice and as a discursive space for
self-reflection.