From Postwar to Postmodern, Art in Japan, 1945-1989: Primary Documents (MoMA Primary Documents)

This is a very language-dependent, sometimes technical book. Unless you are familiar with and enjoy 'artist speak' you may find the text more than challenging. I find the individual artists' essays to be dense and very much in the physiology-philosophical (body-mind might be better) mode of many serious artists. The book, which I recommend reading/digesting its' individual artist/critic essays as separate unique works, surprised me in some ways - e.g., some of the immediate post-war art could be ripped from today's visions - and demanded a new perspective (of the 'conquered, trying to forge a 'new' art while resisting being subsumed in the occupier's culture). Though I'd studied 'traditional' Japanese art in the past, and have always followed its literary artists, I admit to being 're-informed' and 're-educated' quite early on in the book. I haven't finished it...still digesting the content of some artists.

I lived in Japan for some time, could communicate with the Japanese, but I learned from this book many things I didn't know about the people or the country, though I would have liked to have known. The translations from the primary documents, originally in Japanese, are really smooth and excellent, clearly communicating to the English-language reader what the original document contained. Each section is preceded by an informative introduction, and though every document in that section might not be of interest to everyone, there is some very interesting material about the society and the visual arts: the struggle between tradition and the avant-garde, European art and Japanese art for example. There are some color and black and white plates. I found it fascinating.

C'mon - this book rocks!

This book covers a really interesting and creative time in the development of post war Japanese Art. Well worth the read.