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Audrey Pellerin

01/17/00

Mr.Gardner

Japanese Visual Culture

Addis, Stephen. How to Look at Japanese Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

The author, who received his PH.D in art history at the University of Michigan, shares his passion of Japanese art with those interested in acquiring a firmer understanding of six of its domains, ceramic, sculpture, painting, calligraphy, woodblock prints and gardens. Addis describes Japanese art's characteristics and suggests a few techniques to better comprehend the artist's objective.

The book is a great for readers who do not want to pursue a career in art history, but who want to simply acquire common knowledge of Japan's art world. The author has tremendous enthusiasm, which is revealed through the usage of different phrases, draws the reader to continue further through the book. The break of six chapters simplifies the understanding of each aspect of Japanese art. Allowing each art category to have it's own chapter also allows for greater, in depth detail. The author often poses different common questions asked which are usually asked from the readers. The authors questioning technique gives the book a more playfull tone. Readers are not intimated by the author's style of writing. At the beginning of the book the author gives a time line summary of the individual time periods through out Japan's history. In doing so, the reader can better understand each art piece from each time period. One could better understand the artist objective when knowing the social events happening at specific time period.