In Defiance of Collage: Assembling Modernity ca. 1112 CE

Kersey, Kristopher W. (2018). In Defiance of Collage: Assembling Modernity ca. 1112 CE. Archives of Asian art, 68(1), pp. 1-32. Duke University Press 10.1215/00666637-4342384

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This article advocates for a reevaluation of the origins of "collage" in global modernity. It does so by scrutinizing the materiality, historicization, and emergence of a medieval Japanese manuscript known as the Anthology of the Thirty-Six Poets. Rediscovered in 1896, well into Japan's modern era, the voluminous manuscript is replete with stunning examples of papers pasted together in the year 1112—precisely eight centuries before the celebrated Cubist innovations of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The stakes of the comparison are raised, however, by the fact that twentieth-century art historians and critics repeatedly cast the Anthology as the ultimate exemplar of an autochthonous, purely Japanese aesthetic. For some, the medieval Anthology was evidence of a proleptic modernity that challenged the purported innovativeness of North Atlantic modern art. Here I trace the trajectory and test the cogency of this provocative parallel.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Art History > Ancient and Medieval Art History 06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Art History
UniBE Contributor:	Kersey, Kristopher William
Subjects:	700 Arts
ISSN:	0066-6637
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Projects:	[1266] Global Horizons in Premodern Art
Language:	English
Submitter:	Dominique Nadine Wyss
Date Deposited:	14 Jan 2020 14:32
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:34
Publisher DOI:	10.1215/00666637-4342384
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/137456