Art Of The Japanese Postcard [Hardcover]

Kendall Brown (Author), Leonard Lauder (Author), Anne Nishimura Morse (Author), J. Thomas Rimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2004

From the late 19th to the early 20th century, Japan was a vital world center for postcard art. More than just casual mail pieces, these postcards were often designed by prominent artists and had a visual impact that belied their modest format. Remarkably beautiful examples of graphic design in their own right, they also recorded the shifting definitions of "East" and "West" at a time when such European currents as Art Nouveau began to show up in Japanese visual productions. Art of the Japanese Postcard presents 300 full-color examples of these cards, culled from the vast Leonard A. Lauder Collection. They are astonishing not only for their beauty and the quality of their printing, but also for the insight they provide into contemporary Japanese artistic practices--insights not relayed in standard histories that focus on painting and sculpture--as well as for the fluid interplay of European and Japanese modes. Authoritative essays by leading scholars of Japanese art and culture, plus a statement by the collector himself, highlight the design, development, and cultural function of these rarely studied, but highly influential and visually exciting, expressions of graphic genius.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: MFA Publications (April 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878466681
• ISBN-13: 978-0878466689
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,112,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Companion essays delineate the history of this art form, May 18, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art Of The Japanese Postcard (Hardcover)

The collaborative project of Anne Nishimura Morse, J. Thomas Rimer, and Kendall H. Brown, Art Of The Japanese Postcard is a gorgeous, full-color gallery of Japanese postcards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Far more than casual items to mail, most of these cards were designed by prominent artists and feature striking use of color and imagery. A few companion essays delineate the history of this unique art form as well as the immortalization of heart-stirring pictures meant to be sent and shared. Art Of The Japanese Postcard is an impressive and seminal work which is particularly recommended to students of Japanese Popular Culture.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Japanese Art that really was PC, September 14, 2005

By 

D. E. Mudd (Coastal Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Art Of The Japanese Postcard (Hardcover)

What do you like in art? Art Nouveau? Art Deco? Japanese art? You'll find it all in here as you see how, in the first decades of the 20th century, the lowly post card could become a work of fine art in Japan.
This beautifully designed and printed book, really a catalogue of the Boston MFA's exhibition, has more than 300 color illustrations as well as related essays by well-known scholars. The history of the post card, the kinds that were produced, subjects covered...all discussed. And, illustrative of a difference between these and contemporary Western pc's, a section of bio's of artists involved in the designs.
Particularly interesting are the examples showing the impact of the Russo-Japanese War, of Western Art Deco, ... and even of baseball ( in the form of pc's made for New Year's Day 1932 ).
There is serious history in here as well as strikingly interesting art...need an idea for a great Xmas present?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars minor league art form given major league treatment, January 15, 2005

By 

Merrily Baird (atlanta, ga USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Art Of The Japanese Postcard (Hardcover)

Score another home run for Boston's Museum of Fine Arts for recognizing the importance of the Lauder collection of Japanese postcards and then producing a significant book to commemorate the 2004 exhbition of these miniature masterpieces. The MFA has again assembled a cast of formidable experts to provide both historical and artistic perspective for the late 19th- and early 20th-century postcards produced by many of Japan's leading artists. It is thus the case that the text chapters that open "Art of the Japanese Postcard: Leonard A. Lauder Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" help guide the reader through the changes in graphic art and design that followed Japan's opening to the West and the death of the classic "ukiyoe"-style woodblock art.

The postcards themselves are stunning, meriting repeated voyages through this beautifully designed and printed volume. And there are numerous other reasons to savor the images. For example, the cards that appear as numbers 9 through 60 in the catalogue/book all reflect Japan's contemporaneous take on the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. Then there are chapters that demonstrate the impact of the West's Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements on Japanese art sensibilities. Three other cards, my favorites, illustrate famous "haiku" poems, with the artist, Saito Shoshu, using the themes of the cards to stylize the calligraphy with which the poems are rendered. Delight here in a snail's slime trail blended into calligraphic brushwork, an underwater scene in which the calligraphy takes on a very fluid style, and a poem broken up to refelct the hopping of a frog.