The Evolution of Framing in Japanese Contemporary Art and Culture

This essay delves into the evolution of Japanese contemporary art, particularly focusing on the art of framing and its cultural context. It examines how Japan's transition from isolationism to globalism has shaped its artistic landscape, highlighting the interplay between traditional aesthetics and modern influences. The essay discusses the impact of Western art movements, the role of the Buddhist religion in shaping Japanese aesthetics, and the challenges faced by contemporary Japanese artists in a globalized world. It explores how artists navigate the tension between tradition and modernity, incorporating elements of pop culture and technology into their work. The essay also touches upon the market for contemporary Japanese art and the government's efforts to promote it, providing a comprehensive overview of the subject.

Running head: ART STUDIES 1
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Student’s Name
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Frame is arts today: The contemporary in Japanese culture
Modernity for Japan has been a procedure of looking for definition in its social and
political associations with different countries, both Asian and Western (Arrowsmith, 2011).
Japan's authentic expectations toward the West amid the Meiji period can be portrayed as an
ascertained endeavor to accomplish Western mechanical principles and to ingest Western culture
at each conceivable level. The mid-twentieth century was not just a period of continued
absorption of Western works of art and methods of insight, yet additionally a period in which
conventional Japanese structures looked for and accomplished another interpretive voice (Tomii,
2013). With the ascent of militarism, the visual arts were, to a great extent, recruited for direct
propagandistic purposes or permitted just in specifically hackneyed structures. Japan's thrashing
in World War II created in many Japanese learned people and specialists a doubt of the expert of
the indigenous custom, driving them to look for importance in artistic developments and
conventions abroad (Favell, 2012). Specialists today draw in with a world altogether different
from that of their forerunners: comprehensively associated, innovatively progressed and
profoundly assorted.
Over the most recent fifty years the Western canon has been uprooted as the benchmark
for "good" and advantageous craftsmanship, opening the way to works planned to challenge
watchers, as opposed to just to stylishly please (Kester, 2011).The cutting edge idea of frame as a
method of presentation started between the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries in Europe around
religious works of art (Klein, 2010). These frames were enlivened by religious design, whose
ornamentation regularly mirrored the outsides of houses of prayer. By the Renaissance frames
had turned out to be detailed bits of craftsmanship unto themselves, sumptuously cut, overlaid or
painted and now and then decorated with pearls, made out of a solitary bit of wood and

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incorporated with their environment. A style typical in the 15th and 16th Centuries was wide,
level, frequently plated frames with points of interest on fowls, fruits, military trophies, faces,
angels and engravings of Latin (Klein, 2010).
Japan is a country formed by its quick transition from isolationism to globalism, and is a
representation of a mixture of ancient world culture with contemporary Western practices. The
nation’s contemporary art is firmly connected to traditions and rich history, even though it is
influenced by global artistic tendencies (Arrowsmith, 2011). Japanese artists are considered to be
somewhere between modernity and tradition, whereby they incorporate today’s consumer society
and cultural scenes in their works. In addition to regional motifs, they also deal with worldwide
topics concentrating on the association with the world of pop culture and technology. With
regards to framing as an art, Japanese artists would, in the past, paint on wooden boards which
would then be hang on walls. Today, however, they paint on a canvas, and then have it framed
with beautiful and ornamental frames that define their work (Tomii, 2013). It is quite unfortunate
to learn that the market for contemporary Japanese art is still small, owing to the fact that the
Japanese rarely buy such works.
A dominant ideology or system of belief that can be observed in Asian aesthetics is the
Buddhist religion. The concept of aesthetics in Japan is considered an integral part of everyday
life. Moreover, the Japanese believe in nature and how this connects with human beings. That is
why they are particular about the environment and how they relate with each other (Favell,
2012). The Buddhist consideration of beauty and art is made complicated by the modernization
of the contemporary world, which raises questions about the association of aesthetics to
Buddhism. Notably, Japanese’s aesthetic conceptions which are derived from various cultural
traditions have been influential in the creation of special art forms, such as framing (Kester,

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2011). Buddhism as a system of belief was incorporated or expressed in Japanese art through a
mixture of unlikely materials. Even though the arts have conformed to modernity since the Edo
era, conventional aesthetics and training techniques, mainly from religious sources, still
dominate most artistic productions. The Japanese government is making an effort to promote not
only framing as an art, but other forms of art throughout the nation.

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References
Arrowsmith, R.R. (2011). Modernism and the museum: Asian, African and Pacific art and the
London Avant Garde. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Favell, A. (2012). Before and after superflat: A short history of Japanese contemporary art 1990
– 2011. Hong Kong: Blue Kingfisher.
Kester, G. (2011). The one and the many: Contemporary collaborative art in a global context.
Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Klien, S. (2010). ‘Collaboration or confrontation? Local and non-local acctors in the Echigo-
Tsumari art triennial.’ Contemporary Japan, vol. 22, nos. 1 and 2. Pp. 1 – 25.
Tomii, R. (2013). ‘Radicalism and introduction: Collectivism in Twentieth Century Japanese
art.’ Positions: Asian Critique, vol. 21, no. 2. Pp. 212 – 267.