Nakahara, Minoru.

[DADA IN JAPAN – MAVO – SANKA] Pensées sans langage: Gekijo no Mishina purogumaru [Thoughts without language: Sanka theatre programme].

[Tokyo: ca. 1925]. 37 × 18.5 cm. Triple-folded leporello leaf. Very good. Item #54930

Extremely rare leaflet by the Dadaist-Constructivist group “Sanka” (Third Section), which emerged from MAVO, among others. The artists' association was founded in October 1924 as an exhibition collective, which also included artists who had not previously been involved in the radical avant-garde project “Mavo”. This mainly concerned members of the "Action" group, who were still oriented towards Fauvism, Cubism, and Futurism and were therefore at odds with the radical abstraction of the Mavo artists. A conflict was inherent in the Third Section (Sanka) project from the very beginning. There were repeated public disputes over the question of representationalism. Nevertheless, the group succeeded in organizing two major exhibitions. The members of “Action” were inspired by Mavo's “Constructivist” formal language and mainly showed assemblages in which they combined found materials to create sculptural objects. At the same time, Sanka staged innovative performance art with “Gekijo no sanka” (Sanka in the theater). In the second, highly acclaimed exhibition, the Constructivist tendencies were radicalized. “Architectural” constructions with performative elements dominated the appearance. Even during the exhibition, animosities between the moderate and radical exhibitors led to the dissolution of Sanka. (Cf. Weisenfeld, Mavo. Japanese artists and the avant-garde 1905–1931, Berkeley and Los Angeles 2002, p. 98ff.)

Nakahara – who titled the piece he wrote and directed “Pensées sans langage” in reference to Picabia and added “The extent of the blue sky” – initially worked as a dentist in New York before studying painting in Paris. Initially inspired by Amedeo Modigliani, from 1921 he became increasingly interested in the newly emerging Constructivism. He was particularly fascinated by the idea of constructing art like machines based on logical laws. During a stay in Berlin, he came into contact with both the Bauhaus and Dada, especially with George Grosz. When he returned to Japan in 1923, he worked both as a dentist and as an artist. He quickly founded a gallery, published art criticism, and became involved as one of the co-founders of Sanka, in whose experimental dance theater he became active. Nakahara's preoccupation with technique and analytical dissection was coupled with an affinity for Dada, performance and surrealist tendencies. (Ulrike Middendorf, AKL XCI, 2016, p. 474.)

Cf. Bulletin No. 21–22, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2019, no. pp. 40 and 87.

As of February 2025, not in KVK, OCLC.