In Pursuit of Universalism: Yorozu Tetsugoro and Japanese Modern Art / Edition 1

by Alicia Volk

Overview

In Pursuit of Universalism is the first comprehensive, English-language study of early twentieth-century Japanese modern art. In this groundbreaking work, which is also the inaugural recipient of the Phillips Book Prize (awarded by the Phillips Collection Center for the Study of Modern Art), Alicia Volk constructs a critical theory of artistic modernism in Japan between 1900 and 1930 by analyzing the work of Yorozu Tetsugorō, whose paintings she casts as a polemic response to Japan's late-nineteenth-century encounter with European art. Volk places Yorozu at the forefront of a movement that sought to define Japanese art's role in the world by interrogating and ultimately refusing the opposition between East and West. Instead, she vividly demonstrates how Yorozu reframed modern art's dualistic underpinnings and transposed them into an inclusive and synthetic relation between the local and the universal. By looking closely at questions of cultural exchange within modern art, In Pursuit of Universalism offers a new and vital account of both Japanese and Euroamerican modernism. Volk's pioneering study builds bridges between the fields of modern and Asian art and takes its place at the forefront of the emerging global history of modern art.

Copub: The Phillips Collection

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520259522
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/04/2010
Series:	The Phillips Collection Book Prize Series , #1
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Alicia Volk is Assistant Professor of Japanese Art History at the University of Maryland and is the author of Made in Japan: The Postwar Creative Print Movement and the coauthor of Japan and Paris: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and the Modern Era.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Note on Translation and Names
Introduction: Painting “X”

1. Reverse Japonisme and the Structure of Modern Art in Japan
2. Nude Beauty: A Modernist Critique
3. Inventing the Self: The New Woman and the Revolutionary Artist
4. Expressionism and the “New Period of the Primitive”
5. Unified Rhythm: Toward a Universal Painting

Epilogue: Japanese Modern Art in the World
Notes
Further Reading
List of Illustrations
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Definitively illuminates a new horizon for the field of modern Asian art. . . . It is precisely what the discipline needs." —Journal of Oriental Studies

"Forceful and eloquent. . . . A substantially rigorous and provocative probe into the search for universalism in a differentiated world."—
International Journal of Asian Studies

"Deserves to be read by all historians of modern art and East Asian culture and contributes to the growing field of East-West cultural exchange."—Journal of Asian Stds (Jas) / Se Asia & Western Pacific

"An impressive book, beautifully produced and sustaining intellectual rigour with its detailed, stimulating research."—Japanese Studies

"Excellent. . . . Exquisitely written."—Art Bulletin (Caa)

Editorial Reviews

Forceful and eloquent. . . . Volk masterfully unravels the knotty strands that coalesced to shape one individual artist’s perception of self and his work within existing academic, institutional, and professional structures. . . . [The] book deserves praise for being a substantially rigorous and provocative probe into the search for universalism in a differentiated world.

International Journal of Asian Studies

Deserves to be read by all historians of modern art and East Asian culture and contributes to the growing field of East-West cultural exchange.

Journal of Asian Studies

Masterfully written. . . . Alicia Volk embarks upon a fascinating journey to develop an alternative perspective for narrating the complexities of the Japanese art scene. . . . Volk’s stimulating book definitively illuminates a new horizon for the field of modern Asian art. . . . It is precisely what the discipline needs.

Journal of Oriental Studies

Excellent. . . . Exquisitely written.

Art Bulletin - College Art Association

An impressive book, beautifully produced and sustaining intellectual rigour with its detailed, stimulating research.

Japanese Studies

Written beautifully and compellingly.

Journal of Japanese Studies

Forceful and eloquent. . . . Volk masterfully unravels the knotty strands that coalesced to shape one individual artist’s perception of self and his work within existing academic, institutional, and professional structures. . . . [The] book deserves praise for being a substantially rigorous and provocative probe into the search for universalism in a differentiated world.

Ícaro|Ícaro|Ícaro|International Journal of Asian Studies

Written beautifully and compellingly.

Journal Of Japanese Studies

Excellent. . . . Exquisitely written.

Art Bulletin (CAA)

An impressive book, beautifully produced and sustaining intellectual rigour with its detailed, stimulating research.

Japanese Studies - Helenkilpatrick

Deserves to be read by all historians of modern art and East Asian culture and contributes to the growing field of East-West cultural exchange.

Journal Of Asian Stds (Jas) / Se Asia & Western Pacific

Forceful and eloquent. . . . A substantially rigorous and provocative probe into the search for universalism in a differentiated world.

International Journal Of Asian Studies - Alice Y. Tseng

Definitively illuminates a new horizon for the field of modern Asian art. . . . It is precisely what the discipline needs.

Journal Of Oriental Studies - Chun-Wa Chan

"Definitively illuminates a new horizon for the field of modern Asian art. . . . It is precisely what the discipline needs." --Journal of Oriental Studies

"Forceful and eloquent. . . . A substantially rigorous and provocative probe into the search for universalism in a differentiated world."--International Journal of Asian Studies

"Deserves to be read by all historians of modern art and East Asian culture and contributes to the growing field of East-West cultural exchange."--Journal of Asian Stds (Jas) / Se Asia & Western Pacific

"An impressive book, beautifully produced and sustaining intellectual rigour with its detailed, stimulating research."--Japanese Studies

"Excellent. . . . Exquisitely written."--Art Bulletin (Caa)

From the Publisher