History of Asian Art: China, Korea and Japan

ART 246

This course explores visual cultures in China, Korea, and Japan over the past four millennia. Within this vast expanse of visual representation, we will trace transformations brought on by successive waves of cultural influx and examine how those influences merged with pre-existing traditions within each culture. The course will proceed chronologically (for the most part) in each cultural area, which will help give you a sense of cultural developments within individual cultures and understand the ways in which these developments built on one another, within each culture and from one culture to the next. Weekly topics will focus on specific trends in painting, architecture, sculpture, and other media, as they relate to their religious, social, and cultural settings. As we progress through the course, we will visit and revisit certain thematic issues such as representation of the divine, transformation of styles across cultures, and construction of cultural identity through visual representation. You will also get a sense for some of the different career paths and activities in the field of art history through discussion-board "scenarios" introduced in each section.