Japanese contemporary artists have mined some distinctive territory in the past decade or two--from the Superflat movement, to the referencing of traditional art objects like scrolls or contemporary pop phenomena like manga. Within these conventions, certain themes continually surface--nature in conflict with the manmade world, costuming and the search for personal identity and the child as cultural icon. Heavy Light identifies these themes as they are evidenced in recent Japanese photo-based art, and examines how they are reshaping Japanese tradition. This volume is published in conjunction with the major Spring 2008 exhibition at New York's International Center of Photography, which includes a diverse selection of artists: Makoto Aida, Naoya Hatakeyama, Naoki Kajitani, Hiroh Kikai, Midori Komatsubara, Yukio Nakagawa, Asako Narahashi, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Tomoko Sawada, Risaku Suzuki, Miwa Yanagi, Kenji Yanobe and Masayuki Yoshinaga. Also featured in this volume are extensive interviews with the artists, offering accounts of their working methods and their thoughts on the influence of contemporary art on Japanese culture during the last several decades of rapid change. In addition, art historian Linda Nochlin and writer Akiko Otake provide invaluable essays.

Linda Nochlin is one of the most influential art historians of our time. For more than four decades, she has been at the forefront of the feminist critique of art history, playing a pivotal role in shaping the course of the discipline. Since completing a doctorate on Gustave Courbet in the early 1960s, she has devoted herself to a lifelong study of the artist, arguably the most radical of all nineteenth-century painters and one of the fathers of modern art. Now, in this extraordinary volume, Nochlin presents her complete writings on Courbet’s work. Every aspect of his œuvre – from his vast realist depictions of provincial French life, allegorical works and paint-encrusted landscapes to his dark, brooding portraits, sensual nudes and earthy still lifes – comes under her scrutiny. In a specially written introduction, Nochlin considers Courbet’s lasting impact not only on later painting but also on the practice of art history itself. With essays spanning forty years, Courbet is much more than a monograph on a single artist. It is also the story of the intellectual development of one of our leading writers on the visual arts. Linda Nochlin is the Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.