Splendid Impressions—Japanese Secular Painting 1400-1900, in the Museum of East Asian Art Cologne

Published in an oversized format (10x12"), this handsome volume, filled with full-page and several fold-out color plates of screens, showcases the superlative collection of Japanese art in the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, Germany (which co-published the book). Two essays, on attitudes towards East Asian art in imperial Germany and medieval Japanese monk painters, precede the catalog, which is organized by painting type, including ink landscapes and the floating world. Despite the "secular" of the volume's title, a number of Zen monk paintings are included. Hotei is an imprint of Brill. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Doris Croissant is Professor of East Asian Art at the Centre for East Asian Studies, Institute of East Asian Art History, University of Heidelberg (Germany) where she has taught since 1978. She has published on Chinese tomb art, Rinpa school painting, Meiji and Taisho period painting and art politics, portrayal and photography, and on gender aspects of Japanese painting. She is the author and co-editor of Japanese Paintings in the Linden Museum Stuttgart: A Selection from the Baelz Collection (1999); Japan und Europa 1543-1929 (1993) and Performing “Nation”, Gender Politics in Literature, Theater, and the Visual Arts of China and Japan, 1880-1940 (2008).