Style in the Arts of China

Numéro d'article 10124189

STYLE IN THE ARTS OF CHINA William Watson This comprehensive, original account of Chinese art dispels the notion that only experts can appreciate the arts of China. It will satisfy the curiosity of art lovers who want to know where Chinese art stands in relation to other arts of the world and how it relates to what is said of the function of art in other societies. William Watson discards the customary historical approach to Chinese art which divides the subject by dynasties or by the categories of the fine arts as they are understood in the West—a method that has tended to obscure basic analogies in Chinese and Western art. Instead, he groups the categories of artistic invention, period taste, archaism, and psychological quality under the broad headings of hieratic, realistic, and decorative. He traces these three major aspects of Chinese style separately from early to recent times, looking for corresponding manifestations in both major and minor arts—painting, sculpture, pottery, jade, porcelain, and textiles. But Professor Watson does not neglect historical sequence. His first chapter, on hieratic styles, describes a stylistic cycle which, as primary expression, extends from the 15th to the 1st century B.C. The realism discussed in the second chapter is present in significant degree only in much later periods. The chapter on decorative styles touches upon early art but is largely concerned with the last thousand years, when a conscious separation of the decorative from the expressive was particularly characteristic. The 146 illustrations, described at length in the captions, link closely with the themes and discussions. THE AUTHOR: William Watson is Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology in the University of London and head of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. An army officer in World War II, he served with the British Museum’s Department of Oriental Antiquities until 1966. He has traveled in China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia, and conducted excavations in Thailand. His books include Ancient Chinese Bronzes, China Before the Han Dynasty, and Cultural Frontiers in Ancient East Asia. Professor Watson organized the great exhibition of Chinese art treasures that, in recent years, was seen for the first time outside China.

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