Art of the Powerful Other: State Patronage of Western-Style Art in East Asia

This paper examines government-initiated art educations, national salons, and heroic monuments in China, Japan, and Korea in the context of the three countries’ responses to the colonial intrusions of the West. While casting light on the complex process in which each country re-defined itself in terms of the powerful other, this study argues that state patronage of Western-style art in East Asia was the driving force behind the rapid expansion and establishment of the foreign artistic principles in the region.