ABSTRACT
Exhibitions of paintings by Japanese artist Sesshū Toyo (1420–1506?) took place in both Tokyo, Japan and Beijing, China in 1956. Japanese and Chinese media reported the respective exhibitions enthusiastically. Chinese artists and scholars emphasized the realism in Sesshū’s art. However, some Japanese critics highlighted his paintings’ “modern meanings” and argued that Sesshū’s art was related to terms such as “modernity.”
By delving into successive artistic exchanges between China and Japan from the 1910s to the 1950s, this chapter challenges the mainstream dichotomy between realism and modernism in the art world of Socialist China. Examining Chinese and Japanese newspaper reports, journal articles, and exhibition catalogues, this essay addresses the political and cultural circumstances under which these two art events were held, explores the way in which the Beijing exhibition differed from the Tokyo exhibition, and analyzes the interpretation, agenda, and influence of these two events. It further suggests that the exhibitions of Sesshū’s paintings, along with other exhibitions in the late 1950s, redefined the boundary of realism and opened a small window for an alternative modernism among Chinese artists and audiences.
