MODERN JAPANESE ART

This class is an introduction to the history of Japanese art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. In this chronological study we will encounter a range of art forms—from woodblock prints, painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and new media—and we will consider how Japanese artists responded to major societal, political, and economic changes over the last two centuries, including industrialization and modernization, major natural disasters, war, questions of cultural/national identity, and debates centering on what “tradition” meant to artistic practice in the modern and contemporary eras. Using visual analysis as our core skillset, this course will also rely on readings from secondary scholarship, as well as those by Japanese artists and art critics from each time period to help us better understand the historical contexts surrounding each artist, artwork, or art movement.