Innovations and Continuities: Case studies of Japanese Art and Modernity
Available on campus OR Online
Summer Term
On Campus: Tuesday 27 April to Tuesday 25 May 2027
OR
Online: Wednesday 5 May to Wednesday 2 June 2027
Course Description:
In Japan, the period from the mid-19th century to the outbreak of WWI was marked by revolutionary change in every aspect of life. After two centuries of self-imposed isolation, Meiji-era Japan responded to a series of unequal treaties imposed by the West with rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. To safeguard economic and political autonomy and keep pace with the West on the world stage required a fundamental transformation of Japan’s economy, institutions, and education.
The many ways in which the arts were implicated in this convulsive period of modernisation, and what the divergent stylistic directions Nihonga and Yōga (respectively painting in the Japanese and the Western styles) reveal about the tension between tradition and innovation will be explored in our first three lectures. Our fourth lecture will critically examine Japonisme, the intense appeal of all things Japanese in the West around the fin-de-siècle and the fascination of Japanese wood-cut prints – many of which themselves in fact revealed Western influences – for avant-garde European artists. Our series will conclude with a talk by the artist and President of the Royal Academy, Rebecca Salter, on her own practice which is deeply informed by a lengthy period of studying traditional Japanese woodblock printing in Kyoto.
Our Speakers: Dr Mary Redfern; Dr Eriko Tomizawa-Kay; Dr Monika Hinkel; MaryAnne Stevens; Rebecca Salter P.R.A
Moderator: Dr Anne Puetz