Indian, Chinese & Japanese653 B.C. – A.D. 1900

Major Points

Birth of Buddha

Silk Road opens

Buddhism spreads to China and Japan

Art is serene, and meditative

Indian Art

3rd millennium BC – Modern Times

4 Periods (Ancient period, Islamic ascendancy, Colonial period, Independence and postcolonial)

Ornate, sensuous, refined, strong sense of design, colorful, vibrant and tells a story

Intertwines with cultural history, religions, and philosophies

Fresco from Ajanta, c. 450-500

Past ArtAjanta & Ellora frescoes and rock cuts 2 BC – 600 B

Mughal Influence

Descendants of Genghis Khan, Muslim

Ruled over Indian subcontinent (southern Asia)

Mughal minitures, book illustrations or small album works

Architecture & Marble

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/11/singh-twins

Taj Mahal

Seven Wonders of the World

Mausoleum: building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or persons

Completed in 1653

RajputanaMostly men painters

Focus on nature & harmony

Many miniatures, BRIGHT where as Mughals were dull.

Lord Krishna, Hindu deity popular subject

Rajputana people endured much to stay in existence (as well as Hinduism) through the times of Muhammed and the British takeover as many of them gave up art due to lack of understanding on the part of the British.

Modern Indian Art

Focus on ancient culture

M F Hussein, Picasso of India

Museums emerged late 60’s

Indian art in high demand worldwide and sold for high prices, encouraged by government

Chinese Art

Successfully mastered ALL forms of art

Ancient art included cave paintings, pottery, jade artifacts, bronze casting (Bronze Age) and calligraphy

Chinese Art ContinuedAfter the Iron Age pottery and porcelain were focus, Terra Cotta Army

With the invention of paper over a dozen dynasties (time of rule by a particular family which ruled during that period)

Within these dynasties were “schools”

Chinese Painting

Strong tradition of painting, calligraphy, and printmaking

Concentrated in water based techniques

More stylized & abstract

Importance of white space and favors landscapes

Spring Morning in the Han Palace, Ming Dynasty

Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, Northern Song Dynasty

Contemporary Chinese Art

After communists took over in 1949 art was labeled reactionary (politically driven) further accelerated by Cultural Revolution (Social-political movement whose goal was to enforce communism)

Chinese “avant-garde” works produced after CR, includes painting, sculpture, film, ceramics, video, photography, installation and performance.

In the 2008 World’s Top contemporary artists, The People’s Republic of China holds it’s 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th places.

Zhang Xiaogang

Zeng Fanzhi Yue Minjun

Wang Guangyi

Japanese ArtWide range of art styles & media including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood & bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and recently manga & cartooning. Painting is the preferred method of the Japanese.

Write with a brush rather than a pen

Japanese ceramics are the finest in the world and the earliest known artifacts of their culture.

Heavy use of natural materials for architecture and a relationship between interior and exterior spaces

Sculpture mainly used for religious purposes

Ukiyo-e

“Floating world”

Japanese woodblock prints

Landscapes, historical tales, & theatre

Main artistic genre in Japan

Rose in the Edo cultural second half of the 17th century

Mass producable

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (神奈川沖浪裏 Kanagawa-oki nami-ura?) original print by Hokusai

Influence of Buddha

Starts in 6th & 7th centuries

Home of the earliest Buddhists structures

Statues and icons brought to Japan by Koreans

Temples

Enku, Buddhist monk sculpted 120,000 wooden statues

Pagoda and Kondō at Hōryū-ji, 8th century

Contemporary Art

Taikan YokoyamaKiyoteru Kuroda

History of Manga