ARTH1004W: Introduction to Asian Art

This one-semester course is an introduction to painting, sculpture, and architecture from South, Southeast, and East Asia. It will cover works from ancient cultures to those of contemporary Asian diasporas. Resisting the impossible task of covering everything, we will instead home in on specific objects in order to understand them in their broader cultural, religious, and social contexts. We will trace the ways in which common themes and problems appear in different art forms and in different places, and we will discover the ways in which seemingly disparate styles and objects may be productively understood in conversation with each other. We will work together to create an interpretive model that is synthetic, critical, and appreciative of the enormously diverse field that is Asian Art. Lectures will move from explanatory descriptions of objects and histories that are covered in the textbook to critical interpretations of the historiographies that shape the contemporary reception of Asian art.

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