Dangerous Beauties and Dutiful Wives by Kendall Brown

Dangerous Beauties and Dutiful Wives by Kendall Brown

This captivating gallery offers rare glimpses of Japanese culture during the early years of the 20th century. Drawn from popular women's magazines of the Taisho period, its kuchi-e (frontispiece pictures) of bijin (beauties) represent a variety of artists, from the visual poetry of famous painters to more prosaic efforts by anonymous designers. Printed in the era's latest techniques of color lithography and offset printing, these kuchi-e bijin were created for mass production, yet they echo the form and appeal of woodblock prints from earlier generations. Their fashions are new enough to be exciting but sufficiently traditional to be reassuringly familiar. Embracing noble ideals and modern reality, the kuchi-e bijin suggest both the aspirations and the mundane truths of their audience, combining the sense of fine art and the sensibilities of popular illustration.
Kendall H. Brown is Associate Professor of Asian Art History at California State University, Long Beach. His informative captions and Preface explore the images' literary content, social context, and the technologies used in their production. A valuable resource for scholars of Japanese art and period book illustration, this volume is also of tremendous interest to anyone with an eye for beauty.

Kendall H. Brown is Professor of Asian Art History at California State University, Long Beach. He recently served as Curator of Collections, Exhibitions and Programs at the Pacific Asia Museum. He received BA and MA degrees in history and art history from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in art history from Yale University. Dr Brown publishes actively in various areas of Japanese art. He is a leading figure in the study of Japanese gardens in North America, and he is the author of Japanese-style Gardens of the Pacific West Coast and Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America. He lives in Long Beach, CA.

Photographer David M. Cobb is a member of NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association) and PPA (Professional Photographers of America). He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and their two cats. You can see more of his work at www.dmcobb.com

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780486476391
ISBN 10	0486476391
Title	Dangerous Beauties and Dutiful Wives
Author	Kendall Brown
Series	Dover Fine Art History Of Art
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Dover Publications Inc.
Year published	2011-05-27
Number of pages	128
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.