Constructing Chinese Art History

3 units

How to construct a history of the visual arts and material culture of pre-modern China remains an unresolved problem. This seminar first examines the efforts of non-Chinese sinologists and art historians over the last century, and the conceptual and interpretive dilemmas they have negotiated. The second part of the course examines Watson's Art of China (Yale, 1995), Clunas' Chinese Art (Oxford, 1997), and Thorp and Vinograd's Chinese Art and Culture (Abrams and Prentice-Hall, forthcoming) as contemporary solutions to this problem. Prerequisite, permission of instructor.