Page 21 - Studio International - July/August 1967

to the artist for his contribution to art, or for a fantastic construction in fluorescent plastic distributed to the artists according to the
the work in the exhibition. The chairman with self-generating sound. However, on the number of votes received. The considerable
concluded that no such distinction could be advice of the Japanese jury it was decided measure of agreement between the jury mem-
made and that the prize would have to go to not to give the grand prix to Yoshida since, bers was due to two factors. In the first place
both the artist and a particular work in the we were told, the particular work in the every juror member was quite clearly anxious
Biennale. The problem of deciding between exhibition was much better than anything he to take note of the point of view of the others;
Vasarely and Stella was that of choosing had done previously and could come into the secondly, five of the seven jury members were
between achievement and promise. Since it category of what was earlier described as young. The latter is no doubt responsible for
was very much in the spirit of the situation to a happy accident. Finally, Yoshida was given the fact that out of twelve prizes, ten went to
extend encouragement rather than to award the Ohara Art Museum purchase award, and artists in their late twenties and thirties. The
medals, the grand prix for a foreign artist the grand prix went to the grand maitre of jury session finished at 4.45 pm. Half an hour
went to Stella and Vasarely received the next radical art in Japan—Yoshihara. later at the press conference, the Mainichi
highest award—that of the Foreign Minister. The final voting, at the end of which there Newspapers handed out printed notices giving
Initially the foreign jurors wanted to give the were twelve names, dictated which prizes details of prize winners and awards.
Japanese grand prix to a young and fairly should go to which artists. The prizes were There are two lessons to be learned from the
unknown artist, Minoru Yoshida, who made listed in order of importance and they were Tokyo Biennale. The first is that artists should
not send, or allow anything to be sent, to
international exhibitions, unless it be their
best work. The second lesson is that there is
no substitute for efficient organization. It is
true that the members of the Mainichi
Newspapers who work on the special projects
section had not had a day off for five weeks,
but their sacrifice was responsible for the
success of the enterprise. q

Prizewinners of the 9th Tokyo Biennale
Frank Stella—International Grand Prix; Jiro Yoshihara—
Japanese Grand Prix; Vasarely—Foreign Minister's
Award; Peter Sedgley—Education Minister's Award;
Ferdinand Kriwet—Tokyo Metropolitan Governor's
Award; Pol Mara—Nagaoka Museum of Contemporary
Art (purchase award); Nelson Leirner—Mainichi News-
papers Award; Arakawa—National Museum of Modern
Art Award (purchase award); Takamatsu—Kamakura
Museum of Modern Art (purchase award); Kojima—
Bridgestone Museum Award (purchase award);
Yoshida—Ohara Art Museum Award (purchase
award); Miki—International Art Promotion Associa-
tion Award.

The Japanese prizewinners represent quite accura-
tely some dominant trends in Japanese art today.
Yoshida constructs vast environments from luminous
perspex which are accompanied by sounds provided
by the aluminium sheets at the back. His construct-
ions, whether large or small, are all called Just curve,
and the use of dayglo extends from perspex to the
paint with which he sometimes makes marks on the
plastic. Miki makes effigies of ears. Having done a
series of ears in aluminium relief and countless other
'ear objects', his contribution to the Tokyo Biennale
consisted of three glass boxes each containing one
8 ft ear painted in dayglo colours. Apart from Yoshi-
hara, whose work is known in Europe and who re-
presents theolder generation, Arakawa is probablythe
best known among the younger artists. His pale
diagrammatic paintings of interiors have been shown
in Europe and in the USA. Relief constructions by
Kojima, like those of Miki, also deal with a single
theme although without quite such a degree of
obsessiveness. Kojima places sections of white hips
in relief, against a painted background of a series of
square canvases. Also working with multiple canvases
is Takamatsu who paints shadows of people and
objects cast on walls and the environment.