China in Europe: Europe in China
Course objectives:
1) To practice art history as cultural history and engagement;
2) To consider the questions: how is culture made, and for whom is it made?
3) To understand the ideology of the "West/non-West" and the "West/China;"
4) To refine skills of visual analysis;
5) To further develop critical writing and speaking skills;
6) To practice the art of raising a good question.
WEEK 1. INTRODUCTIONS & ISSUES
January 5
Objectives this week: To have a clear understanding of the structure of the course and the course requirements, and to introduce you to the conceptual arc of the course.
By Jan 5: Read through the syllabus, take a look at the assignments, the guidelines for respectful behaviour, and if eClass is new to you, take a look at the eClass 101 PDF.
By Jan 5: Read 1 text: Stuart Hall, "Culture is always a translation" (2005)BLOG 1.0
first blog assignment: select an object (historical or contemporary, your choice) that embodies for you a translation of cultures or a kind of cultural boundary-crossing. It need not be an object that has to do with Chinese culture. Post an image of it to the blog for discussion in conference anytime before we meet. Please use your name as the post title.
WEEK 2. EARLY MODERN ENCOUNTERS 1.0: WAYS OF SEEING
January 10, 12
Our objective this week: To understand ways of seeing in China and Europe in the 17th-18th centuries. NB: the readings assigned this week are perhaps some of the more dense readings we will be doing this term. Be sure to read the list of key terms and questions on the blog (posted by 5 pm the day before), and look at the images carefully (both the study images and any images that the guest bloggers choose to focus on), as they will help you to understand the texts.
By Jan 10: Read: 1) Lihong Liu, "Shadows in Chinese Art: An Intercultural Perspective," in Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between China and the West, eds. Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Ning Ding (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2015), 190-213.
Study images:
Joseph Wright of Derby, Corinthian Maid. 1782-84. Oil on canvas; 106.3 x 130.8 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Min Qiji 閔齊伋 Xixiang ji (Dream of the Western Chamber). Ca. 1640. Album of woodblock prints; 25.5 x 32.2 cm. Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln.
Zou Yigui 鄒一桂 (1686-1772). Liveliness of Spring. Hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper. National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Study terms
intercultural
shadow
shade
illusion
chiaroscuroBy Jan 12: Read Jenny Purtle, "Double Take: Chinese Optics and Their Media in a Postglobal Perspective," Ars Orientalis vol. 48 (2018): 71-117.
Study Images
Huang Gongwang 黃公望, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. Handscroll, ink on paper; 33 x 639.9 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Guo Xi 郭熙, Early Spring. 1072. Hanging scroll, ink on silk; 158.3 x 108.1 cm. National Palace Museum.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), The Last Supper, Italy, begun ca. 1495–96. Tempera and oil on plaster, 460 × 880 cm. Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Xu Bing 徐冰 (b. 1955), Background Story 4, China, 2008. Mixed media installation, trash and natural debris attached to frosted glass panel. Installation view (front) at Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, 2008.
Jeff Wall (b. 1946), A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai), Canada, 1993. Transparency on lightbox, 250 × 397 × 34 cm. Tate Museum, London.
Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎(1760–1849), Suruga Ejiri (Eijiri in Suruga Province), from Fugaku sanjurokkei (Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji), Japan, 1831. Polychrome woodblock print, ink and color on paper; 25.4 × 37.1 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
I won't post the print pictures here because those reproduced in the article are high resolution images.
Guest bloggers (#1): Free-style posting! If you have a question about the artwork (and I am sure you will have questions about the contemporary work), please post to the blog.
WEEK 3. EARLY MODERN ENCOUNTERS 2.0: THE JESUITS
January 17, 19
Objectives: To study the role of the Jesuits in creating trans-imperial images of violence and peace
By Jan 17: Read: Elizabeth Berinstein, "Hunts, Processions, and Telescopes: A Painting of an Imperial Hunt by Lang Shining (Giuseppe Castiglione)," Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 35 (Spring 1999): 170-184.Study Images
Lang Shining 郎世寧(Giuseppe Castiglione) and others, Portrait [of the Emperor] Troating for Deer. 1741. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk; 267.5 x 319cm. Palace Museum,Beijing.
Unidentified artist. Emperor Minghuang's Journey to Shu, Song dynasty (960-1279) copy of a Tang original. Ink and colors on silk; 55.9 x 81 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Benozzo Gozzoli, The Procession of the Magi (detail, east wall), 1459. Fresco, Chapel of the Magi, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi Florence.
The Triumphal Entry into Rome, panel 4 from the tapestry series The History of Constantine the Great, woven by the Comana-LaPlanche, circa 1623-1625 after designs byPeter Paul Rubens and Pietro da Cortona. 15' 11 3/4"x17' 10 1/4". Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Guest bloggers (#2): Yining, Mingzhi
By Jan 19: Read: 1) China's Imperial Modern catalogue, browse and read section on the Qianlong copper plate prints; 2) OPTIONAL Laura Newby, "Copper Plates for the Qianlong Emperor: From Paris to Peking via Canton," Journal of Early Modern History 16 (2012): 161-199.
On Jan 19: FIELD TRIP TO THE MACTAGGART COLLECTION. We will meet at Gallery A in the Telus Centre at 11 am. The Telus Centre is the building on corner of 87th and 111th, right next to the Timms Centre for Performance. NB: you will have a blog post due next week in which you visually analyze one of the pictures/objects you encounter during this field trip.
WEEK 4. EARLY MODERN ENCOUNTERS 3.0: CHINOISERIE/EUROPENERIE
January 24, 26
Objectives this week: To introduce you to Chinoiserie and EuropénerieOn Jan 24: We will meet in one of the Rutherford Computer Labs, South Building 2-03. First we will workshop visual analyses you posted to the blog (Blog 2.0), and then librarian David Sulz will join us and we'll learn about English-language databases on China during the final thirty minutes of the conference.
BLOG 2.0: Post a visual analysis of one of the paintings or objects viewed in the Mactaggart Art Collection last week. Include a photograph. Due Monday, January 23, at 5 pm. If you would like to review how to go about doing a visual analysis, take a look at De-nin Lee and Deborah Hutton's "Introduction" in The History of Art: A Global View (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2021).By Jan 26: Read: 1) Greg Thomas, "Yuanmingyuan/Versaille: Intercultural Interactions between Chinese and European Palace Cultures,"Art History 32. no. 1 (2009): 115-43. (eJournal); 2) OPTIONAL Louis Marin and Anna Lehman, "Classical, Baroque: Versailles, or the Architecture of the Prince," Yale French Studies no. 80 (1991): 167-82; 3) OPTIONAL David Porter, “Monstrous Beauty: Eighteenth-Century Fashion and the Aesthetics of the Chinese Taste.”Eighteenth-Century Studies 35, no. 3 (Spring 2002): 395-411.
Study images:
Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France
Yuanmingyuan 圆明园 (Garden of Perfect Brightness), 1780s, Beijing, China
Guest bloggers (#3): Amy
WEEK 5. EARLY MODERN ENCOUNTERS 4.0: GARDEN DESIGN
January 31, February 2
Our objectives this week: To introduce you to garden design, site and sight.
By Jan 31: Read: 1) Jennifer Milam, "Toying with China: Cosmopolitanism and Chinoiserie in Russian Garden Design and Building Projects under Catherine the Great,"Eighteenth-Century Fiction 25, no. 1 (Fall 2012): 115-138.
Study Images
William Chambers’s 1757 publication, Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils: To Which Is Annexed a Description of Their Temples, Houses, Gardens, etc. (translated into Russian 1771)
Liu Yuan 留园 (Garden for Lingering), Suzhou
Guest bloggers (#4): Lailai, Katie
By Feb 2: Workshop on primary sources about garden design. OPTIONAL Read: 1) Craig Clunas, "Nature and Ideology in Western Descriptions of the Chinese Garden," inNature and Ideology: Natural Garden Design in the Twentieth Century(Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1997), 21-33.
Study Images
Orloff, Introduction to the Study of Landscape Design(1922) UA eBook
Wethered, A Short History of Gardens(1933) UA book to be reviewed in class
Sirén, Gardens of China (1949) UA book to be reviewed in class
Graham, Chinese Gardens: Gardens of the Contemporary Scene(1938) UA book to be reviewed in class
WEEK 6. EARLY MODERN ENCOUNTERS 5.0: SILK & FIRST WORKSHOP
February 7, 9
Our objectives this week: To introduce you to material studies of fashion and to hold our first workshop.By Feb 7: Mei Mei Rado, "Encountering Magnificence: European Silks at the Qing Court during the Eighteenth Century," in Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between China and the West, eds. Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Ning Ding (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2015), 58-75.
ON Feb 7: Second field trip to the Mactaggart Art Collection.
By Feb 8: Blog 3.0: Post your exploratory by February 8 at 5 pm.
ON Feb 9: Workshop your papers! We will read the exploratories before each workshop, and each of you will have the opportunity to give a very short 2-3 minute presentation of how you arrived at your project (please don't read your exploratory), and then a discussant will kick off the conversation by commenting on things that are compelling about the exploratory and then raising questions about it. We will devote ten minutes to each project, so please come prepared with questions.
WEEK 7. WORKSHOPS
WEEK 8. READING WEEK.
WEEK 9. TRANSITIONS TO MODERNITY 1.0: SCIENCE AND ART
February 28, March 2
Our objectives this week: To study urban ethnographies and sciences in the 19th century.
By Feb 28: Read: 1) Yeewan Koon, "Narrating the City: Pu Qua and the Depiction of Street Life in Canton," in Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between China and the West, ed. Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu, Ning Qing (Los Angeles: The Getty, 2015), 216-231. 2) OPTIONAL (if you're interested in seeing how a scholar develops a project, read this earlier iteration of "Narrating the City"): Yeewan Koon,The Defiant Brush (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2014), excerpt on STREET FIGURES pp. 53-67.
I will teach you how to annotate a bibliography in this session.
Study images
George Henry Mason, The Costume of China. London: W Miller, 1800.
Dong Qi 董棨. Taiping huanle tu 太平欢乐图. NPM.
Pu Qua. Vegetable Seller. ca. 1790. Watercolour and ink on paper; 36 x 46 cm. Victoria & Albert Museum.
Pu Qua. Customs album. ca. 1790. Watercolour and ink on paper; 36 x 46 cm. Victoria & Albert Museum.
Guest bloggers (#5): Samantha, Tracy
By Mar 2: WE'RE meeting in person this session.
Read: 1) Judith Magee, Images of Nature: Chinese Art and the Reeves Collection (London: Natural History Museum, 2011), introduction 4-13 (PDF ); 2) Lisa Claypool, “Beggars, Black Bears, and Butterflies: The Scientific Gaze and Ink Painting in Modern China,” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Reviewno. 15 (March 2015): open-access e-journal read section on GAO JIANFU and conclusion, pp. 29-40 in PDF.
We will study the Bruce Peel Special Collection of entomological books in conference, and go on a virtual field trip to the MACS entomology collection.
Images:
Chinese Drawings." Album of Insects and Butterflies. Mactaggart Art Collection. 2004.19.3 (view entire album online).
Guest bloggers (#6): Nicole, Sam
WEEK 10. TRANSITIONS TO MODERNITY 2.0: PERSPECTIVES ON THE ORIENT
March 7, 9
Objectives this week: To introduce you to photographs and paintings of the sick man of Asia and orientalizing portrait photographs.
By Mar 7: Read: Larissa Ari Heinrich, "Handmaids to the Gospel," Tokens of Exchange (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 239-275.
Study Images
Lam Qua's paintings for the medical missionary Peter Parker
Guest bloggers (#7): Courtney, Jylee
By Mar 9: Read: 1) Roberta Wue, "Essentially Chinese, the Chinese Portrait Subject in Nineteenth-Century Photography" in Body and Face in Chinese Visual Cultures, edited by Hung Wu (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 257-80. (PDF); 2) OPTIONAL: Wu Hung, “Inventing a ‘Chinese’ Portrait Style in Early Photography: The Case of Milton Miller” inBrush & Shutter: Early Photography in China, eds. Jeffrey W. Cody and Frances Terpak (Los Angeles: The Getty Research Institute, 201), 69-90. (PDF)
Study Images
Milton M. Miller, Getty Museum
Guest bloggers (#8): Zhiyong, Arina
NB: Redraft your exploratory question into a 2-3 PAGE project précis and email it to Lisa as a WORD DOC (no PDFs, please) with an annotated bibliography of 4 sources, minimum. Due Thursday, March 9, by 5 pm.
WEEK 11. TRANSITIONS TO MODERNTY 3.0: FASHION
March 14, 16
Objectives this week: To introduce you to fashion design in the early 20th-century China and Paris.
By Mar 14: Read 1) Heather Chan, "From Costume to Fashion: Visions of Chinese Modernity in Vogue Magazine, 1892-1943," Ars Orientalis Vol. 47: 210-232.
On Mar 14: Discussion of writing a paper abstract.
Study images
For those who are interested in looking beyond the images reproduced in the article, visit the Vogue Archives available through the UA library.
For Shanghai calendar posters 月份牌, the easiest way to access them online is by google searching.
Guest bloggers (#9): Kaydin, Yunlu
By March 16: Lisa at AAS conference, conference will not meet
WEEK 12. TRANSITIONS TO MODERNITY 4.0: VISUAL ARTS & COLLECTING
March 21, 23
Objectives this week: To study intercultural painting and art practices in Europe and China, and the collecting of Chinese things in the UK and elsewhere.
By Mar 21: Read: 1) Charles Lachman, "‘The Image Made by Chance' in China and the West: Ink Wang Meets Jackson Pollock's Mother," Art Bulletin, 74, no. 3 (September 1992): 499-510.
Study images
Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (No. 30). New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, George A. Hearn Fund,1957.
Li Cheng 李成 (919-967), att. A Solitary Monastery amid Clearing Peaks 晴峦萧寺. Hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk; 111.76 x 55.88 cm Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Arts, Nelson Fund. See also Google Arts & Culture page.
Yujian 玉涧, Mountain Village in Clearing Mist. Handscroll, ink on paper. Tokyo, Idemitsu Museum of Arts
Shen Zhou 沈周, Landscape painted for Wang Ao. Hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper. Mactaggart Art Collection.
Jin Nong 金农. Plum Blossoms and Calligraphy. Hanging scroll, ink on paper; 116.2 x 41.5 cm. New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery
Guest bloggers (#10): Nic, Jacob, Kyerin
By Mar 23: James Hevia, "Looting Beijing, 1860, 1900," Tokens of Exchange (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 192-213.On Mar 23: Discussion of how to create a compelling presentation.
Study images
Things the British Stole
Gu Kaizhi, att. Admonitions Scroll Nüshi zhen tu 女史箴图. Handscroll, ink and colour on silk. British Museum.
Gu Kaizhi, att. Nymph of the Luo River 洛神赋图.Handscroll, ink and colour on silk. British Museum.
Porcelains in the Sir David Percival Collection,British Museum.
Things the Canadians Stole
Pair of Guardian Dogs, Royal Ontario Museum
Guest bloggers (#11): Preiti, Axel
WEEKS 13 & 14 SYMPOSIA
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