ArtGuest UserJanuary 09, 2022

How “ugliness” redefined Japan’s art scene: Inside The Heta-Uma movement

ArtGuest UserJanuary 09, 2022

The global art scene of the early 80's was nothing but exciting.

In America, Jean-Michel Basquiat removed every barrier between streets and galleries with his neo-expressionist paintings while April Greiman, was leading a new vision of graphic design, introducing computers to its process. Meanwhile in the UK, new musical values with a philosophy closer to the art school rather than the music club, pushed for new frontiers. All under the wide umbrella of postmodernism, the new artistic language that took over all kinds of expression.

heta-uma-hetaumaart-artmovement-japanesehetaumaartists-japaneseart-contemporaryartjapan-postmodernartjapan-uglinessart-uglart-japaneseartist-80shetauma- — Salaryman, Yoshikazu Ebisu

Surprisingly however, in Japan, postmodernism did not widely develop its philosophy, it didn’t become Japan's next "-ism", its fundamental artistic movement.

At least not among fine arts. It was in the field of illustration that postmodernism gained presence in the Japanese creative scene of the 80s, and its most recognizable face can be found in a visual movement that could not have existed in another time, nor another place, Japan's Heta-Uma.

Heta-Uma, from the combination of the words ‘heta’ [bad] and ‘umai’ [good], explains a work that at first glance, seems bad, but on closer look is actually, good. Although in a literal sense it means “bad but good”, it is best translated as “unskilled good”. Heta-Uma images, commonly seen as ‘ugly’ by the critics of their time, openly challenged conceptions about technique, meaning, medium and ultimately, what makes an artwork, art, previously disseminated by the art establishment.

At the beginning of the 80’s, the Japanese art scene and the origin of its protagonists was divided in three main systems. The first one, "Kobo-Dantai" art [Open contest art], art competitions promoted by governmental and private organizations, the most famous of them being, Japan Fine Arts Exhibition

The second one was contemporary art, which by the beginning of the decade had become a way too complex field. Indeed, its artists, rooted in 70's conceptual scene and Mono-ha, avoided any use of traditional art media, such as painting, sculpture and any form of representative art, because they believed they should not create already-seen images.

The third category was illustration. In Japan, illustration was understood from the formal point of view: creating images produced by professionals and commissioned for a commercial purpose, in essence, it was about applied art and not art for art's sake.

However, during the explosion of postmodernism and without any commercial commissions or clients, Japanese illustrators began to create images expressing their own voices. In contrast to contemporary art - and the status-quo of fine arts-, they were in favor of creating already seen images, this phenomenon became known as "anti-illustration" and shortly after as Heta-Uma.

While Heta-Uma works can be traced as soon as the ’70s in Garo Magazine, it emerged as an artistic movement during 1980, at that time, realistic illustrations were the norm. Young artists seeking a new form of expression started following illustrator, Teruhiko Yumura (aka Terry Johnson) at his Flamingo Studio, in the heart of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Teruhiko Yumura was a pioneer impacting the visual arts world with his style, clearly different from realism and with his open position in favor of advertising and other platforms not yet explored by any artistic technique, such as manga.

His illustration series for a medicinal drink, Oronamin C, and his collaboration with Shigesato Itoi for the comic Jounetsu no Penguin Gohan [Zealous Penguin Meal] earned him wide recognition from the new, effervescent scene.

Teruhiko Yumura established an order of image value: the first and most valuable was Heta-Uma [unskilled good], secondly, Heta-Heta (unskilled bad), next was Uma-Uma [skilled good] and finally, Uma-Heta [skilled bad].

Teruhiko Yumura explained: “Uma-Uma, it's something like a professional-looking picture made by a professional, in short, it's boring. Uma-Heta illustration is the worst. It relies only on technique and has no passions, because it was produced in conscious effort to make it as good-looking as possible. When this effort happens to result in a Heta-Heta image, there's very little difference from a Heta-Uma illustration. We must not underestimate Heta-Heta illustrations”.

This difference is best explained by abstract artist, Taro Okamoto, in a statement that is often used in artistic production, "anyone can do it, but no one can do it. Makes the amateur feel comfortable and the professional impressed".

In that sense, the most important value of a Heta-Uma work is the expansion of its momentum, to be appreciated only after a careful look, the natural impulse to draw is valued above any technique. In short, an “ugly” appearance is more valued than what makes an illustration look “good”.

Heta-Uma’s school of illustrators, guided by Teruhiko Yumura, found —like many artistic subcultures in Japan in the 20th century—its exposure in alternative magazines. The most influential were Bikkuri House, Takarajima and Yumura's The Terry Times. In its pages, artists like Suzy Amakane, Keiji Ito, Emiko Shimoda, Keiichi Ohta, Miyo Iida, Takashi Nemoto, Yoshikazu Ebisu and many more, broke every standard of image making and established themselves as the most notorious emerging talent, labeling themselves as “The Tokyo Funky Staff” [TFS] debuting as a group at Parco Shibuya Gallery, in 1983.

Many of these creatives chose to create manga works in their styles, such as Suzy Amakane, while others, like Takashi Nemoto, with a mangaka background did non-commissioned illustration work.

This relationship with magazines and manga is why, Heta-Uma is commonly identified as a movement born in manga and for manga, however, although its protagonists certainly applied their illustrations to that discipline, their field of work was wider.

In 1980, Parco organized Nippon Graphic Exhibition, an open contest designed to “discover new creators who can expand the concept of illustration to new ideas and expressions”.

Work from the applicants of that year were mostly works closer to realism of the 70's, surprisingly, the winner was a young man named, Jun Ito [not to be confused with the famous mangaka, Junji Ito]. His piece, It's Such a Good Weather that I Felt a Little Dizzy a painting that was very close to what today we would classify as otaku [the term otaku was not coined until 1983, by Akio Nakamori], unleashed thousands of artists who found in Heta-Uma a whole new artistic panorama.

In 1982, for Nippon Graphic Exhibition's third edition, almost all submissions were Heta-Uma works, 2,301 in total. And its winner, Katsuhiko Hibino with his ‘PRESENT AIRPLANE’, cemented his influence as a driven force that soon after would become a key figure of Japanese art at the end of the century.

When the 1985 edition broke a record with 5,395 submissions, it was obvious that Japan was living through peak Heta-Uma and its young creators recognized it as the look and feel of the artistic medium. Suddenly, realist images were replaced by scribbles and art insiders were replaced by young newcomers.

It is easy to represent Heta-Uma as a visual equivalent of Neo-Expressionism and Lowbrow movements from the West since they have similar characteristics, such as the usage of "bad taste" as aesthetic [in a good way] and their focus directed to younger artists. However, as Neo-Expressionism, Heta-Uma along with Parco movements were strongly criticized by insiders of the Japanese art world, describing them as superficial, calling them Shonen Art [Boys Art].

That provocation ignited a rabid response from students of Tokyo University of Arts, among them, were Takashi Murakami and Makoto Aida, who, along with others like Hiro Sugiyama and Ichiro Tanida, founded in 1991, a new artistic movement called Tokyo Simulationism, also known as Tokyo Pop or Neo-Pop, which would later develop new visual trends, like Tokyo Hedonism, (making art for the artist's pleasure and happiness) and Tokyo Mannerism, [making art with technique as its main driver]. Concepts that would be better understood under SUPER FLAT’s visual universe.

It is important to remember that Heta-Uma was never recognized in its time as a legitimate artistic movement, at least not in the eyes of fine arts institutions (insider art), since they saw it as illustration only or "art for art's sake", a practice and philosophy not allowed by the establishment.

But among the alternative art field [outsider art], formed by galleries, independent collectives, and observers, Heta-Uma was indeed a valid expression of art or, better said, anti-art. But even when the movement did reach significant support to be recognized as a powerful, expressive voice, a feeling of not belonging to the "formal" art scene, would prevail until the mid-'90s and would be finally eliminated by SUPER FLAT and especially, the growing influence of Takashi Murakami abroad.

It is because of this duality between art scenes about the nature of Heta-Uma, that some creatives born in the movement, such as Katsuhiko Hibino and Noriyuki Tanaka, preferred to describe their work with the imported word for "art", written in katakana [アート], instead of “bijutsu”, [美術], the word for "art" in Japanese, written in Chinese characters, while the term "illustration" wasn't quite right either.

After its highest peak in 1985, some of Heta-Uma's protagonists mixed with the Simulationist movement and others pursued a more commercial career in advertising and creative direction. In the same way, platforms like the Nippon Graphic Exhibition contest focused back on more conventional works, thus ending Heta-Uma’s trend.

Even when its period was indeed short, Heta-Uma remained influential. It paved the way to a new standard of art appreciation by shortening distances between fine arts and illustration and gave a new generation of Japanese creatives the voice and strength to defy a rigid art scene and transform it into one of the most interesting and dynamic art scenarios that continues to inspire worldwide.

FOLLOW SABUKARU ON INSTAGRAM

About the Author:

Leonel Martínez is a social media consultant and a writer living in Mexico City. Japanese culture, graphic design and art aficionado. Describes himself as a "cultural worker".

References:

中. (2014). 現代美術史日本篇 1945‐2014. アートダイバー.

ジ. (2018). 公募団体展. 美術手帖. https://bijutsutecho.com/artwiki/120

Guest User