The Group 1965

This book is published for the world''s first exhibition in an art institution to present a comprehensive range of works by the six Japanese artists Makoto Aida, Parco Kinoshita, Hiroyuki Matsukage, Oscar Oiwa, Tsuyoshi Ozawa and Sumihisa Arima. Despite its name, The Group 1965 is not an artist collective in the conventional sense of the term. It formed more or less by chance, and its members share little other than their Japanese nationality and the fact that they were all born in 1965. Unlike most well-known artist collectives, The Group 1965 is a loose association of various individual artists who do not subscribe to a common artistic programme. Instead, what most defines the group is how it unites different concepts and approaches, and the multifaceted way in which these various visions are realised. The Group 1965 artists cite Joseph Beuys, whose work they saw in 1984 in the Galerie Watari and in the Seibu Museum in Tokyo, as an important link to the city of Düsseldorf and a key figure in the development of their sociopolitical and artistic thinking. References to Japanese and Western artistic traditions and to the pop attitudes and foundations of a new Japanese self-image will appear alongside works by the artists. This exhibition is part of the Federal Republic of Germany''s celebrations to mark 150 years of friendship between Germany and Japan