Asia/America

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar examines art and design produced by people of Asian descent in the Americas, broadly defined, from the mid-19th century to the present day through a transnational lens. We will foreground labor, capitalism, American imperialism, and war as defining characteristics of their lived experiences and artistic production. Previous histories of Asian-American art have focused either on narratives of exclusion due to the immigration bans of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, or on the cultural identity of the Asian diaspora. Instead, we will insist upon the primacy of the contributions made by artists, designers, and architects of Asian descent to American art and culture, acknowledging that the history of American art and design cannot be told without a full accounting of the work of Ruth Asawa, Manuel Ocampo, Tseng Kwong Chi, Maya Lin, and many others.