Solace in Painting: Reflecting on a Tumultous Century

This elegant volume features expressive paintings by three East Asian and Asian American painters whose lives were fundamentally shaped by the major conflicts of the twentieth century. This richly illustrated volume features expressive paintings by three East Asian and Asian American painters whose lives were fundamentally shaped by the major conflicts of the twentieth century. Internationally recognized Hong Kong artist, Chao Shao-an, shaped modernist approaches to Chinese ink painting. Through the metaphorical subjects of bird-and-flower paintings, he ruminated on events from the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 to the return of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. Keisho Okayama, son of a high-ranking Japanese Buddhist priest, arrived in the United States with his family to help proselytize Buddhism, only to spend several formative childhood years incarcerated in a WWII internment camp. His large-scale paintings contemplate these and other deeply affecting experiences from his life. Vietnamese American painter Ann Phong’s work reflects on her escape from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, as well as the experiences of the Vietnamese immigrant community in the United States. Published to accompany a national traveling exhibition, this elegant book will be of interest anyone exploring conflict, trauma, and healing through art.

Fletcher Coleman is an assistant professor of art history at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and a specialist on the religious arts and art historiography of China, whose research and curatorial projects span the medieval through early modern periods.

Yukio Lippit is Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. Lippit’s research and teaching interests center around Japanese painting of the medieval (1200-1600) and early modern eras (1600-1868), as well as the history of Japanese architecture.