Piotr Splawski
Current PhD - AHRC Studentship for the project Forgotten Japonisme
Piotr Splawski has recently commenced his PhD research after being awarded the AHRC Studentship attached to the TrAIN project Forgotten Japonisme. In common with research being carried out by others involved in this project, he aims to challenge a widely accepted, yet tacit, conviction that negative attitudes towards Japan in the West between 1920 and 1960 inhibited the development of the taste for Japan. In investigating evidence to the contrary, he will focus manifestations of Japonisme in American and Polish painting and graphic arts of the interwar years.
Using the examples of two secondary and relatively late brands of Japonisme, American and Polish, he intends to examine how Japanese art continued to function as an inspirational force in the West beyond 1918, despite a significant shift in political climate. Thus a secondary aim of his project is to provide insight into the political nature of Japonisme and therefore of orientalism in general.
Related Projects
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Forgotten Japonisme
Led by TrAIN Director Professor Toshio Watanabe, Forgotten Japonisme is a major three year research project funded by the AHRC. Between September 2007 and September 2010, this project will explore a previously neglected period in the study of Western attitudes towards Japanese art: from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Find out more about Forgotten Japonisme
Related People
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Professor Toshio Watanabe
TrAIN Core Member - Director
I grew up in a transnational environment. My father is Japanese and my mother German from Transylvania in Romania.
Find out more about Professor Toshio Watanabe
