The meeting of Eastern and Western art is always more than a synthesis; it offers creative possibilities for interaction between East and West, a process in which the great civilizations preserve their own character while stimulating and enriching each other. In this book, Michael Sullivan leads the reader through four centuries of exciting interaction between the artists of China and Japan and those of Western Europe. From Hokusai to van Gogh, Sullivan shows how the study of artistic interpretation has significantly enlarged and enriched our vision of artists and their aims and ideals both East and West.

Michael Sullivan is Fellow Emeritus at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University. He is the author of The Arts of China (third edition, California, 1984) and Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China (California, 1996).

"Sullivan's book . . . is a fine place for beginners to enter into the artistic aspect of the history of East-West relations."—Fusao Ariga, Mainichi Daily News

"A truly beguiling and absorbing read. [Sullivan's] opinion is invariably judicious and well-focused, and above all he has an enviable capacity to give lucid explanations of the complex interactions between the artists of China, Japan and the West."—Hans van der Meyden, Apollo

"Michael Sullivan is a master stylist. . . . His is one of those rare texts that take on the important task of assimilating the humanistic heritage of the East with our own heritage in the West."—Martin J. Powers, University of Michigan