On Kawara's nomadic mind: Autobiography of "a citizen of the world"
Item
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Title
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On Kawara's nomadic mind: Autobiography of "a citizen of the world"
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Identifier
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AAI3127933
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identifier
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3127933
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Creator
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Yang, Eunhee.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Anna Chave
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | Biography
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Abstract
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This study examines Kawara's autobiographical aspects of his art from 1952 to the present, from his debut in Japan to recent projects such as Pure Consciousness (1998). Kawara has constantly employed the subjective "I" in his art, turning his personal narratives into a system of "self-portraiture." Kawara's self-portraiture emphasizes his presence as a singular agent while critiquing cultural homogenization in both Japan and institutional designations, such as groupings of artists in New York. This dissertation investigates how his focus on the self as singular eventually lead to his intentional "international," "inter-cultural," and nomad-like living that constantly placed him between borders.;The first chapter traces Kawara's early self-portrayal as a war survivor in the wake of World War II in Japan. It contextualizes Kawara's artistic career in Japan from 1952 to 1959, when he was engaged in figurative works that reflected the war-stricken society, as exemplified by Thinking Man (1952), and The Bathroom series (1953--54). Chapter Two examines Kawara in New York in the 1960s, where he was inspired by the gradual internationalization of the art world as well as by individual, governmental, and institutional efforts to promote contemporary Japanese art in international exhibitions. I discuss how his attention to the self eventually drove him from the center of the postwar scene to the margins. The third chapter examines the gradual progression of Kawara's self-definition as an international nomad in the highly dynamic period of the 1960s. In this period, Kawara's traveling became pivotal to his conception of authorship, beginning with his first trip to Mexico in 1959; and extending to his exposure to contemporary art in Paris during 1963 and 1964 and the inception of his I Met and I Went series in Mexico in 1968. Chapter Four analyzes Kawara's play with language and silence and his use of language as a site of identity formation and as a distancing tactic designed to show both his singularity and his refusal to be "Japanese." I trace the origin of this tactic to his early periods within and outside of Japan, specifically to Conjunctive Mood: A Project for Printed Painting (1962), as well as to his "ON-Language" projects, and his abandonment of his native tongue in favor of Esperanto and other alphabet-based languages. Chapter Five deals with how Kawara's self began to disappear from his journals and his biography as his works began to form an autobiographical system, creating a paradoxical duality of self-portrayal and self-erasure in his work.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
