Contemporary Art Currents between Japan and India

Recent decades have seen increasing interactions in contemporary art between India and Japan marking a renewed fervor in a fi eld which had been somewhat in hiatus since Okakura Kakuz and Rabindranath Tagore had formed a strong cultural bond, at the turn of the 20 th century.This movement has come about due to promotion by the respective governments, cultural organizations, art museums and galleries.India's most important international art exhibition, the Triennale organized by the Lalit Kala Akademi (National Academy of Art) has seen representation from Japanese artists from its very fi rst exhibition in 1968, while the Japan Foundation since its inception in India in 1994 has done substantial work to foster cultural relations between the two countries.The Fukuoka Art Museum has consistently hosted exhibitions of Asian Art including Indian artists, while more recently the Mori Museum in Tokyo has been showcasing Contemporary Indian Art.A number of Japanese artists, some on a personal level, have made repeated visits to India resulting in images of India fi ltering into their works.However, these efforts do not encompass the broad canvas and most vibrant of Contemporary Indian Art; and Contemporary Japanese Art is yet to garner substantial attention in India.The art of both countries has faced similar issues, whereby on the one hand it is expected to draw on its rich historical past and "eastern" situation and on the other to compete on a global level.The problem of identity and the indigenous image is being increasingly questioned by both Indian and Japanese scholars, curators and artists, attempting to release art from the "hegemony of western concepts".From the 1990s onwards Asian art, including Japanese and Indian art, has been making its presence felt globally, with increased participations in international biennales and art exhibitions.The role of the arts of the two countries in the larger framework of Asian art is a hotly debated topic today.1 I have been impelled to touch on this issue (however briefl y) by the cornucopia of discussion and information on this buzzing around the world.This paper traces the cross currents in art between Japan and India particularly in the contemporary context and presents the opinions of scholars, curators and artists, discusses the role of various agencies that have supported art activity between the two countries and their mission statements, investigates into the inspiration, expression and aspirations of Japanese and Indian artists involved in this process, questions whether there is a common aesthetic, dwells on the problem of identity and image and 1 As the scope of this paper does not allow wider investigation, Asian art would be discussed primarily in relation to Japan and India.. Through Okakura Japanese painters Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) and Hishida Shuns (1874-1911) were invited to India by the Tagore family.Mutual infl uences followed through Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) adapting Yokoyama's "water dripping technique" 3 in his own wash technique, while the Japanese artists portrayed Indian Goddesses in their paintings, though these images "may have frightened the Japanese public with their unfamiliar iconography."4