In this seminar, we shall consider the development of Modern Art in Japan: the tension between European influences on all aspects of life, including Classic European Art (oil painting), and the concept that unified photography and oil painting as mediums representing Reality. We will look into the desire to block this influence, and make use of local systems of representation that were common, known and ubiquitous for centuries (print). We will discuss the development of Nihonga Style as a synthesis between local painting of the Kano School, and the influences of European painting traditions. We will explore the rise of the Mingei movement – and the return to local traditional crafts. We shall concentrate on the Meiji (1868-1911) and Taisho (1911-1925) periods, an era when there is a meteoric rise of Modern narratives on one hand, and extreme nationalism and colonialism in Asia, on the other.  Finally, we will also look into War Art and the images of the time of aggression and militarisation in Japan.

During this seminar, we will consider the tension between local culture and artistic traditions, and the desire to learn and apply varying forms of Western art. We will follow the impact and importance of oil painting in Japan, and its influence of other artistic styles (print, photography, Nihonga). We will discuss the tremendous changes in the themes and subjects of Japanese print art, the local medium most common in the mid-19^th c., and its disappearance from the media by the first decade of the 20^th c.. We will follow the different stages during the process of inventing the Nihonga style, and the assimilation of varying styles into this new medium. We will discuss Robert Morris influence on Yanagi Soetsu, the return to local crafts, and the possible links to nationalism and Colonialism in the era. We shall read the theoretical and philosophical writings that accompanied this process – including texts by Fukuzawa Yukichi; Ernest Fenellosa; Okakura Kakuzo; Kuki Shuzo; Yanagi Soetsu among others.