context: painting > sources

The Art of East Asia edited by Gabriele Fahr-Becker

This is a totally glorious book, hugely informative and with some of the best reproductions I've seen in any art book. It is big, and sometimes seen in two volumes. It's a real bargain too. Do note that it is by no means restricted to Japan - that's barely a quarter of the whole, written by Michael Dunn - so not such a great buy if you have no interest in Korea or, especially, China. There is the odd moment of sheer idiocy, as for instance when Dunn claims the likes of Koryusai Isoda and Torii Kiyonaga to be "household names" in the West, but that's the kind of loss of grasp on the real world that happens when you work in a specialised area. If I could only keep five of my hundreds of art books, this would be among them.

buy it