South Asian Art

(4 Credits)

What can art tell us about the people, cultures, and connections that shaped South Asia? The course explores the rich diversity of South Asian art— sculptures, paintings, manuscripts, architecture, textiles, and contemporary visual culture. Through the close study of art objects, the course uncovers stories of religion, migration, cultural exchange, artistic innovation, and everyday life. The Buddha seated in deep meditation having renounced all desires; Shiva with his multiple hands and heads, performing his cosmic dance in a ring of fire; a Mughal emperor seated in his court surrounded by European visitors are some popular motifs from South Asian art. But do you know the meaning behind these? Students will develop the skills to read art and cultivate an art historical vocabulary; while discovering how ideas and visual traditions travelled across regions and continue to shape contemporary culture, from textiles and contemporary art to Bollywood. Museum and gallery visits in Dubai and Abu Dhabi will bring these questions to life, offering opportunities to think about how art is collected, displayed, interpreted, and moved across cultures.