Provides and invaluable and very accessible addition to existing biographic sources and references, not least because of the supporting biographies of major writers and the historical and cultural notes provided.
Arts of Japan is a classic and informative text that explores the rich cultural heritage and history of Japanese Art. This art history text examines the various influences that have shaped the course of Japanese art history in the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, and handicrafts. Discussed with challenging insight are the impact of the various Indian and Chinese schools, the pervasive influence of Zen philosophy, and the many other artistic developments, giving the reader a well-rounded picture of the great significance and contribution of Japanese art. Special features of the book are sections on handicrafts and a chapter on prehistoric art. The book comes at a time when there is an awakened interest in Asian art throughout the world. In the past, due to linguistic barriers, political upheavals, and the limited number of specialists, misconceptions have been especially numerous in the field of Japanese art. The Arts of Japan admirably corrects these misinterpretations, consolidates the results of the most recent scholarship, and in one compact volume presents an up-to-date, authoritative survey of Japanese and throughout its long history and in all its colorful diversity.
Introduction to two decades of artistic ferment in postwar Japan. As that devastated nation confronted the fraught legacy of World War II, a rapid succession of avant-garde groups began experimenting with new media and processes of making art, disrupting conventions to address the changes occurring around them. The works that remain from this era are largely ephemeral - exhibition flyers, programs for performances, musical scores, issues of short-lived journals, documentary photographs, pieces of mail art, and multiples made from the detritus of modern life - but the ideals of engagement and innovation that invigorated this creative surge are not.
The Floating World by novelist James A. Michener is a classic work on the Japanese print of the Edo period (1615-1868). Mr. Michener shows how the Japanese printmakers, cut off from revivifying contacts with the art of the rest of the world and hampered by their own governmental restrictions, were able to keep their art vital for two centuries through their vigor and determination. For this new edition, Howard A. Link updates the scholarship and expands on many theoretical aspects introduced in Michener's study.
Explore Japanese folk art--called mingei--with this beautifully illustrated book. Mingei literally means the "arts of the people" and is a treasured expression of Japanese culture and history. This book of Japanese folk art introduces 116 exquisite and interesting Japanese pieces, describing their origins, showing how they are made and used, and relating the background of myth and folklore associated with each. Illustrated with many line drawings and color photographs, Mingei offers readers a concise and informative introduction to a rich and varied artistic tradition.
**Winner, Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title 2015** This Japanese design book presents the arts, aesthetics and culture of Japan with over 160 stunning color photos and extensive historical and cultural commentary . The Japanese sensibility often possesses an intuitive, emotional appeal, whether it's a silk kimono, a carefully raked garden path, an architectural marvel, a teapot, or a contemporary work of art. This allure has come to permeate the entire culture of Japan—it is manifest in the most mundane utensil and snack food packaging, as well as in Japanese architecture and fine art. In Japanese Design, Asian art expert and author Patricia J. Graham explains how Japanese aesthetics based on fine craftsmanship and simplicity developed. Her unusual, full-color presentation reveals this design aesthetic in an absorbing way. Focusing on ten elements of Japanese design, Graham explores how visual qualities, the cultural parameters and the Japanese religious traditions of Buddhism and Shinto have impacted the appearance of its arts. Japanese Design is a handbook for the millions of us who have felt the special allure of Japanese art, culture and crafts. Art and design fans and professionals have been clamoring for this—a book that fills the need for an intelligent, culture-rich overview of what Japanese design is and means. Topics explored in Japanese Design include: The Aesthetics of Japanese Design The Cultural Parameters of Japanese Design Early Promoters of "Artistic Japan" 1830s-1950s
During America's Gilded Age (dates), the country was swept by a mania for all things Japanese. It spread from coast to coast, enticed everyone from robber barons to street vendors with its allure, and touched every aspect of life from patent medicines to wallpaper. Americans of the time found in Japanese art every design language: modernism or tradition, abstraction or realism, technical virtuosity or unfettered naturalism, craft or art, romance or functionalism. The art of Japan had a huge influence on American art and design. Title compares juxtapositions of American glass, silver and metal arts, ceramics, textiles, furniture, jewelry, advertising, and packaging with a spectrum of Japanese material ranging from expensive one-of-a-kind art crafts to mass-produced ephemera. Beginning in the Aesthetic movement, this book continues through the Arts & Crafts era and ends in Frank Lloyd Wright's vision, showing the reader how that model became transformed from Japanese to American in design and concept. Hannah Sigur is an art historian, writer, and editor with eight years' residence and study in East and Southeast Asia. She has a master's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is completing a PhD in the arts of Japan. Her writings include co-authoring A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (Timber Press, 2002), which is listed in "The Best Books of 2002" by The Christian Science Monitor and is now in its second edition; and "The Golden Ideal: Chinese Landscape Themes in Japanese Art," in Lotus Leaves, A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (2001). She lives in Berkeley.