By Shunsuke Kamei

One of the most remarkable achievements of the 20th century literature and culture was the liberation of human consciousness. It dived deeply into the subconscious world of humanity, took hold of human minds and emiotions that had been suppressed by the external ( usually conventional) consciousness, and dragged them out to the open world. Thanks to this liberation of subconscious minds and emotions, the world of consciousness itself also seems to have been greatly liberated. Freud and Jung led the way in the field of psychology. Joyce, Woolf, Proust and Faulkner, in the field of fiction, published monumental novels of "the stream of consciousness", and in the field of poetry surrealism was a dominant influence.Fine art also, acknowledging these movements, has been greatly expanding its world . Fine art, however, needs to do tough battles with mundane world because it involves the visual i.e.the physical sense and hence it tends to chain artists in mundaneness.In these battles with mundane world most needed are intrepid imagination and unbridled fantasies. Avant-garde writers dismantle sentences and reconstruct them. Artists do similar destruction and construction to create their works, but they are naturally inclined to rely on existing images incorporated with five human senses; an image that initially seems fresh easily turns out to be banal. Still, depending on the artists' way of grappling with images, it is possible to establish fresh,lively relation between fantasy and reality. The possibilities are endless.In other words directions of quests are infinite. I personally am attracted to the liberation of eroticism both in literature and art throughout the 20th century. The spread of erotic feeling and thought dragged out from our subconscious world makes our bodies and minds free. We feel as if we can fly from this mundane banal world to another wonder-ful world, when we watch the really creation-filled 'Fantastic Art.'

Literary and Cultural History

Professor emeritus at The University of Tokyo

“Allurement to Phantasmology”

By Junichi Oka

Between the real world in which we live, and another world, perhaps that of fantasy, there is a barrier, or wall if you like. Before the age of rationalism, it was considerably easier to cross that wall, and go between these two 'worlds', and it might therefore seem necessary to re-open this imposed border. We can say with certainty that while some would maintain that artists who compose fantastic (in its literal sense) works are in a world of their own fantasy, as far as the artists are concerned it is their reality, and it is surely a tragedy that on their own they cannot make their own reality real for others alone. Perhaps it is that they, unlike the rest of us, have a mirror in which to reflect themselves and who they are. On a basis of the rise and evolution of landscape paintings, artists' expression with calm and rational decisions creates a distinctive atmosphere contains classical, traditional techniques. The birth of these paintings was no less than one thousand years ago, and the style has endured the tests of time, and is still with us today. If we consider what this visual expression is, it is tempting to name it “Phantom-ism”. However, this is simply a side-definition, and so this would not be a suitable name for it. We at the IFAA have started making moves in amongst the chaos. The real world dominates their work, and so they are inextricably entwined. Though associations of modern artists uphold the "Here & Now" stance, they seem to forget they are supported by the historical memories and its depth of techniques so that the mantra now has come to the point of "Nowhere." Today's trend is the 'pointless' modernism, and ‘cheap expressions’ are often lauded and praised.I personally am of the opinion, that we ought to examine the depth of the history inside each artist's work rather than being distracted the shallowness of modern reality. How much exactly can artists extend the maximum ability of the force of their works? The work of the artists here at the IFAA should provide the answers. Let us keep our keen interests in this association.

Art Critic

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By Tatsuo Ikeda

Inside of human beings, there must be mysteries and marvels of astronomical depth and width. The vast and boudless space for marvels is perpetually expanding, inextricably linking humans with the universe. Hence, human beings and the universe, make alignments like the 'Klein bottle'. Klee said "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible the invisible." In Japanese it has been translated "絵画とは、見えないものを見えるようにする事だ(Literally translated : To paint is to make things visible that are not visible)." Setting the original quote aside, I personally like the Japanese version, "making invisible things visible." This is the essense of painting. Incidentally, to put the phrase "invisible things" into other words, one could almost say that they are merely things which are in the shadow of that which is visible in front of our eyes. Hence, these "invisible things" are deeply embedded in this world.They are usually veiled with many kinds of many sheets of veils so they cannot be easily projected on our brains which stifled by common sense and knowledge. Only sharp senses, wild imaginations and the ability of seeing frantic illusion make it possible to grasp invisible things from the dark and depthful forest and make it visible. This has been one of the great roles of paintings for years and years. Though, this role has stepped down from the center and been pushed away since the 20th century started, especially after the latter half of the century. But it does not mean that human beings are able to gain civilisation that easily. Andre Breton assured "the eye exists in a savage state." I suppose this "EYE" means the sight which stares the internal forest which holds primordial darkness. The sight stares mysteries and marvels. It can be said that this is the eye not made less sensitive by the machine civilization which pursues efficients, speeds, easiness and convenience. There still may be many people who have this 'EYE'. People who look inside of their own abyss with unrestrained curiosity. People who try to find the truth lies beneath of the reality in this fictional world by using imaginations. These 10 people gathered here, are exactly like those written above. Though each person is facing doing slightly different things, they all persist on the root of paintings : trying to see invisible things. The root of paintings reminds us some old, European stone-built castles which are beginning to resemble a ruin. From here on, I expect them to express the world of enigmas, mysticals, folie, fantasy oddness without any compromises. Do not keep your imaginations flown at half-staff.

Painter