This course weaves together late 19th to 21st century art with the differing political and social developments in Japan and China. In Japan, the course examines major art movements beginning in 1868 with Meiji western-style oil painting, and covering the Taisho period development of Nihonga (an invented tradition of Japanese-style art); the emergence of avant- garde artists, and the Showa period push for war propaganda art. For the period following WWII, the course investigates Gutai, Dadaism, feminist art, and Pop-infused Superflat art. In China the same years are covered, beginning with the Shanghai School, commercial art in the Republic of China, the Heavenly Horse Society and the Lingnan School; and followed by Socialist Realism; Cultural Revolution propaganda art; the 85 New Wave movement; the East Village artists in Beijing; and four prominent contemporary artists: Xu Bing, Cai Guoqiang, Wenda Gu and Ai Weiwei.