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What has Anime done to Contemporary Western Art
The public’s attitudes toward Anime has gradually changed as Japanese Anime, and Eastern Asian anime in general expanded its influence into major line theaters in the past few years. No matter how much professionals and art lovers loath or admire the mingling of anime art and contemporary western art, anime art has made its mark on the Western contemporary art world.
Not so long ago, the art world still viewed Anime as a minor influence. Many would not consider Anime as a type of high-end art, in other words, fine-art, even if the work was done with traditional media.
Nonetheless, it would be impossible to deny the influence of Anime in contemporary art, from Japan, its origin, to the rest of the world. Independent Curators International commented that anime “has attained almost cult status among young people globally during the past several decades, is increasingly breaking into the mainstream. (2002)” As early as 2002, curator Jeff Fleming and Susan Talbott presented My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation in order to investigate the influence of Japanese animation on contemporary Japanese art and art in other Asian regions, and it seemed like a study of anime’s impact on contemporary art Western countries from the UK to the States was only one step away.
In 2011, a curated show Sugi!Pop went around the United States, featuring “the work of more than 30 artists tracing the origins of manga, the rise of Japanese Contemporary Art and into how the art forms have influenced artists around the world (artweek.la, 2011).”
The art forms of Anime and Manga have had a huge impact on contemporary art and particularly global pop-culture in general. While many contemporary artists are not obviously influenced by the Japanese forms, upon closer inspection a viewer can begin seeing how the style has been absorbed and re-imagined by many an artist. (artweek.la, 2011)
Due to a difference in popular taste, for a very long time the American artists, and western artists, in general, stuck to the classic anime titles such as Dragon Ball and titles considered to be…
