context: thematic routes > realism > sources

Reflections of Reality in Japanese Art by Sherman E. Lee

This is a book that accompanied an exhibition. Sadly it does take a 'no, Japanese art is sort of realistic, not merely decorative, honest,' attitude, which is defending something that I think needs no defence, and struggling to justify it on entirely the wrong terms. I'm much more interested in teasing out the differences in the Japanese attitudes to notions of stylistic realism, and especially their general lack of interest in same, than finding ways of claiming it is there. Still, it is a very good and pretty thorough survey of many of the more naturalistic fashions in Japanese painting and sculpture over the centuries (there are a couple of serious and disappointing omissions, I think), but I found its obvious enthusiasm over the first traces of Western realism in Japanese painting pretty depressing. Also, in this old hardback edition, a lot of the reproductions are terrible.

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