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(*)The Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art (★)(´AE-0024´ es mismo libro. Until the late nineteenth century, when Japan opened its doors to the West after several hundred years of rigid isolation, Japanese art and architecture were for the most part unaffected by Western influences. Today, when such influences permeate almost every aspect of Japanese culture, the art world of Japan is fully commensurate with that of the West -and certainly no less diversified in the broad range of its activities. In a word, it has profited by its experience of European and American art and, in typical Japanese fashion, has turned that experience to new and distinctively Japanese purposes. At the same time it has by no means completely repudiated the past. In fact, the spirit and the essence of traditional Japanese art still find their way into the creations of the present day, and the mastery of Western techniques has not meant the obliteration of time-honored aesthetic ideals. Not only are the arts of the East and the West blended in the Japan of today, but also the past and the present are organically linked. This revealing book, generously supplied with 142 illustrations, including 33 in full color, places contemporary Japanese art in the perspective of its times. Among the subjects presented here are abstract art,´art informel´, action painting, pop art, sculpture, and architecture. Of particular interest is the analysis of abstract art -a form in which Japanese artists, no longer bound by their specific national heritage, have achieved a universality of expression that had not been possible within the confines of traditional realism. Modern Japanese architecture, which has commanded considerable admiration in the West, also receives its proper share of attention. The book has the virtue of having been written by a scholar who is versed in the civilizations of both East and West. All in all, it is a unique contribution to the understanding of modern Japanese art and its relation to the Japanese past and to world art in general. 2.Toru Terada ［1915-］ is a well-known art critic and a recognized scholar in the field of French literature. He graduated from the University of Tokyo and served there for some years as a professor. His published works in his native language include´Shiso to Zokei［Thought and Creation］´,´Shi no Arikata［Poetry as It Ought to Be］´, and´Kaiga to Sono Shuhen［Painting and Allied Arts］´.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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