ARTH 245 - Ancient Cultures, New Markets: Modern and Contemporary Asian Art

FDR: HA
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years

This course examines the art movements of the last one hundred years from India, China, Tibet, and Japan primarily through the lenses of the larger sociopolitical movements that informed much of Asia’s cultural discourses: Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, Socialism, Communism, and Feminism. We also address debates concerning “non-Western” 20th-century art as peripheral to the main canons of Modern and Contemporary art. By monitoring the websites of major auction houses in Hong Kong, we better discern some of the recent trends in showcasing, collecting, and buying Asian art. By the end of the course, students have created a complex picture of Asian art/artists, and have engaged broader concepts of transnationalism, as well as examined the roles of galleries, museums, and auction houses in establishing market value and biases in acquisition practices. Kerin.