This page was created by Magdalena Kolodziej. 

Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

Tōyōga Painter

Guo Xuehu did not study art in Japan for any extended time period, nor did he exhibit his works there (in the prewar period), unlike some of his more wealthy peers. The Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, the Taiwan Government-General Library, and the community of Japanese-settler artists in Taipei brought him into the purview of Japan's imperial art world. His paintings shared the stylistic and thematic concerns with nihonga artists, pushing the boundaries of the medium, and redefining its very premises. By rendering the distinction between nihonga and tōyōga superfluous, his work complicates our understanding of nihonga as simply "Japanese-style painting" or neo-traditional painting.

Art historian Yen Chuanying has proposed an expanded definition of nihonga for the period of the imperial rule, defining it as painting with Eastern qualities under Japan’s leadership (Yen Chuanying, “’Nihonga’ no shi: Nihon tōsei jidai ni okeru bijutsu hatten no konnan,” Bijutsu kenkyū, no. 398 (2009): 296.). This political take on nihonga takes into account nihonga's popularity in Taiwan as well as its material affinity to painting in other East Asian countries vis-a-vis oil painting. It points to the role of institutions (salon, library) and Japanese jurors in promoting nihonga in the colonies. At the same time, it gestures to how, in the process, Japanese artists lost the monopoly on this artistic mode as nihonga became a creative medium for some Taiwanese-Chinese artists. Inclusion of Guo Xuehu's early paintings in the story of Japanese modern art could bring this shift in the meaning of nihonga in the interwar period into sharp relief. 

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