No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, December 1997. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1980. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-266).

No description available.

Calligraphy and calligraphic elements in abstract art demonstrate the differences between Japanese and American approaches to abstraction. An examination of the use of calligraphy in Japanese art can reveal how its historic tradition in Japan lends depth and meaning to an image, which is not effectively possible for American artists using the same forms. These differences descend from a Japanese writing system that developed as abstracted images in themselves. Though the Western tradition of Abstract Expressionism art sought to make the experience of painting purely visual without the aid of narrative, explanation, or text, both American and Japanese artists used calligraphic forms. In a word and image analysis, this thesis demonstrates how these calligraphic forms can reveal layers of meaning within their appropriate cultural context. Reconciling calligraphy with abstract art presents the conflict of East meeting West in a new form.

Yayoi Kusama is undoubtedly one of the most esteemed artists today, and yet she is continually written off as "crazy." Kusama's work draws not from insanity, but from her experiences with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and acts as a tool to both process and temper her obsessions and compulsions. In my own work, I reflect on the necessarily obsessive faculty of hand-drawn animation, in an effort to communicate the feeling of OCD.

Seeing beauty in the simplest aspects of nature inspires me to create art as a testament to our world. Being raised on a farm in rural Virginia gave me an appreciation of a reverence for all life. The inherent forms along with color and value establish nature as the master of aesthetics. An early introduction to Japanese art showed me that all nature was worthy and significant as subjects for art. Using materials derived from nature, cotton, linen, wool, silk, adds a tactile quality that I believe elevates the enjoyment of art.

Esta pesquisa visou possibilitar o conhecimento da Ikebana como uma manifestação estética significativa, integrante da história da arte japonesa e que vem se disseminando pelo mundo. Para compreensão da sua estética, será demonstrado como exemplo o trabalho do artista contemporâneo Toshiro Kawase, o estudo do Zen e suas características. Toshiro Kawase é um artista especializado na arte da Ikebana, e suas obras resultaram em dois livros de âmbito internacional: Inspired Flower Arrangements (1990) e The Book of Ikebana (2000). A arte japonesa é baseada nos sentimentos e na simplicidade de expressão, que motivaram este povo a utilizar a natureza como suporte para executar memoráveis obras de arte. Ao longo da história, no oriente e no ocidente da mesma forma, a beleza das flores adicionou graça e charme na vida das pessoas. A pesquisa analisa a arte japonesa e sua ligação inseparável com a religião, abordando principalmente os aspectos do sagrado, o conceito do belo e a real função do artista de Ikebana. / This research intends to show Ikebana by being an esthetic manifestation of art, that been walking side by side with all stages of Art History. To understand the esthetic of Ikebana, will be demonstrated by example, the contemporary artist Toshiro Kawase, the Zen study and its characteristics. Toshiro Kawase is an artist specialized in Ikebanas Art, and his production inspired two international books: Inspired Flower Arrangements (1990) and The Book of Ikebana (2000). The Japanese art is based on emotions and expression simplicity that motivated this people to use the nature like a support to execute memorable works of art. In all parts of history of the art, in occident and in the orient at the same way, the beauty of flowers added grace and charm in peoples life. The question is: Why do Ikebanas art appeared only in Japan or related to Japanese? This research, analyses the Japanese art and its unbreakable link with religiosity, often the sacred aspect, the definition of beauty and the real functionality of the artist. This research also presents aspects of the principal objective of art, and how to do its communication purposing the perpetuation of his human experiences.

This thesis maps Takashi Murakami's Theory of Superflat Art and his associated artistic practices and works. The study situates Murakami and Superflat within the context of globalising culture. The thesis interrogates Murakami's art and the theory of superflat within the historical, social, and cultural contexts of their production-consumption in Japan, the United States, and Europe. The thesis identifies Superflat art and Murakami's work as actively participating in, and expressing, the cultural conditions associated with the 'global postmodern' and globalisation processes. The thesis employs a Cultural Studies theoretical and heuristic framework, utilising a range of contemporary critical theorisations on postmodern art, Japanese cultural identity and globalisation. This framework and approach are adopted in order to draw attention to ways in which Murakami and Superflat articulate and represent the fundamental contentions and dialogues that characterise contem porary globalisation processes. The tensions that are articulated in relation to the discursive construction of the concepts of art/commodity, modern/postmodern and global/local cultural identities. Importantly, this research demonstrates the ways in which Murakami both participates in, and challenges, the conceptual distinctions indexed within the concepts of 'art' as an aesthetic expression and 'commodity' as an object of symbolic exchange in the global marketplace. It interprets Superflat as an 'expressivity' that challenges binary demarcations being constructed between art and commercial culture, and between the aesthetic-cultural identities of Japan and the West. This thesis problematises the meaning of Murakami's concept and aesthetic of Superflat art by drawing attention to these contestations within Murakami's works and Superflat which are generated as they circulate globally. The thesis argues that Murakami strategically presents his work and Superflat art as an expression of Japanese identity which paradoxically also expresses the fluid imaginings of cultural identity available through contemporary global exchanges. This deliberate territorialising and deterritorialising impulse does not resolve the contentions emerging in globalisation, but rather amplifies them, exposing the key debates on the formation of cultural identity as an oppositional expression and as a commodity in global markets. The concept of 'strategic essentialism' is used as a theoretical lens in order to understand Murakami and Superflat's activation of these global processes. This research contributes a valuable case study to the understanding of cultural production as a strategic negotiation and expression of the flows of capital and culture in globalisation.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-200). Also available via the World Wide Web.