Dates|September 14 – October 6, 2019
Venue|MEM map
Open hours|12:00-20:00
Closed on Mondays [Unless it is a public holiday or a compensating holiday, in which case will be closed on Tuesday.]
Tel|+81-(0)3-6459-3205
Lecture / Opening Reception
Date&Hour|September 14, 18:00 –
Venue|MEM
Guest|Ryuichi Kaneko (Photography historian)
Admission free, Japanese version only.
Opening reception will be held after the talk.
The Kyoto Photography Society (K・P・S) was founded in the 1920s by Mr. Motohiko Goto, a medical student of Kyoto Imperial University (renamed Kyoto University in 1947) who was also well versed in aesthetics. Along with the Naniwa Photography Club, Tampei Photography Club and Ashiya Camera Club, it was one of the amateur photography groups in Kyoto at that time. When founded, many of the painting-like works were in the style of so-called art photography but the influence of avant-garde photography and surrealism gradually began to appear. Attempts to experiment with photomontage and abstract photography were revealed one after another by members especially after the war. The first postwar reconstruction exhibition, referred to as the Free Art Association exhibition, was held in 1948 at the Daimaru department store in Kyoto. 18 members exhibited roughly 80 works, 30 of which were abstract colour photographs unusual at that time. This exhibition draws attention to the activity of the Kyoto Photography Society (K・P・S) still unclear in terms of Japanese photographic history and introduces the work of artists representative of that period, Mr. Noboru Ueki and Mr. Yūshi Kobayashi.
Ueki, who also participated in the 1st International Subjective Photography exhibition in 1956, is known for his work comprised of hand painted abstract objects, and works typical of Kobayashi are montages of staged still life, architecture and urban landscapes that emerged during postwar reconstruction. The exhibition considers how the avant-garde expression of photography developed before the war was inherited and developed further by the Kyoto Photography Society (K・P・S) displaying prints by Ueki and Kobayashi from the late 1940s to the 1950s.