ART 358 - Seminar in Asian Art

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ASIA 358) Traditional Chinese epistemologies locate human actors as existing within correlative cosmological systems, wherein agents are subject to the effects of seasonal transition, the movement of time, and astral events. The arrival of Buddhism further expanded the possibilities of what a physical body could be while offering new cosmologies in which to locate that form. Even aesthetic discourses considered the mental and bodily factors that shaped artistic production, calligraphic and painted works said to document materially traces of an individual creator. Using primary sources on cosmology, the body, and theories of art to ground in-class discussion and research, this seminar explores how visual material in China responded to changing conceptions of the human figure, the body, and the universe.

Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS