Abstract
Between 1932 and 1935 Fu Baoshi studied in Japan and soon after developed a style of landscape painting that incorporated elements of Japanese art and Japanese interpretations of China’s pictorial tradition. At the height of the war of resistance against Japan’s invasion,Fu produced powerful rainscapes comparable to those by several contemporary Japanese masters. These atmospheric scenes were metaphors of a land under assault, but their ties to the enemy nation highlighted the hybridity and ambivalence of a trans-Asiatic modernism.
Moreover, rainscapes by Fu Baoshi rivaled their Japanese counterparts in emotional intensity through brushwork and composition, proving that it was possible to engage Japanese influences without forgoing subjectivity and originality, which in the context of his time, was deeply nationalistic. KCI Citation Count: 0