Ishibashi Foundation Special Evening Lecture Nebulous Images: “Clouds” in the Art of Japan

One of the most characteristic and identifiable aspects of Japanese pictorial culture is the prevalence of clouds. Yet despite the longstanding prominence of clouds in Japanese art, it was only in the late 19th century that scientists began to document, sort, and name these atmospheric phenomena according to the typology still used today. As this lecture will demonstrate, the modern meteorological understanding of clouds overshadows the far more interesting operations of “clouds” in the history of Japanese art. One might be tempted at first to dismiss such forms as secondary, extraneous, or even “filler”, yet such nebulous images are actually among the most sophisticated elements within the pictorial tradition of Japan. In a global context, moreover, the complex deployment of clouds in Japanese painting serves to refute any purported theoretical universalism stemming from European art history. Far from ancillary, clouds are tied to a rich repertoire of powerful and multivalent pictorial strategies.