Beyond the material world: abstract art in Asia
There have been a number of waves of artistic influence from Asia on the European West in the last few hundred years. Chinoiserie was one in the eighteenth century, driven by fashion, followed by Japonisme in the late nineteenth, driven by the discovery of a very different aesthetic. In the twentieth century the main influence has been culturally much deeper: into the depths of understanding of the world through philosophy, belief and religion. It only happened - as influence always does – because the receiver is in the right moment to listen, see, understand, and then incorporate these new ideas into their own work.
