Courses

This course examines cross-cultural artistic encounters between the Western world (Europe and the United States) and Asia (India, China, and Japan) from ca. 1500 to the mid-twentieth century, concentrating on the role of art objects and visual culture, broadly speaking, in the cultural exchange between East and West over the past five hundred years. Topics include the impact of Western realism on traditional Asian art forms; the role of commodities and empire in artistic production; Japonisme and Chinoiserie in 19th century Europe and America; early photography; collections of Asian art objects in the West; issues of cultural identity in Asian modernism; and post-World War II abstract art.