Asian Art and Architecture Commons^™

Anxiety Of The Unknown In Art: Xu Bing's A Book From The Sky, Abigail Sease

Undergraduate Research Awards

Discusses Xu Bing's A Book from the Sky, an art installation piece composed of books, scrolls and banners written in pseudo-Chinese characters. The author posits that the purpose of the piece is to reflect the viewer's anxieties about the comprehension of language and information back onto themselves. The author's entry essay for the 2014 Undergraduate Research Awards is included.

Painting Taiwan's Modern Identity, Shelley D. Hawks

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

Taiwan’s painters were dynamic contributors to a revolution in color that dramatically reshaped East Asian art. During the early twentieth century, new techniques of on-site sketching and the introduction of oil paint shook the foundations of Chinese and Japanese ink painting as it had been practiced for centuries. The Japanese colonization of Taiwan, a period when educators such as Ishikawa systematically introduced European painting methods, produced a cohort of painters in Taiwan professionally trained and committed to watercolor and oil painting. Building on international art trends like Impressionism and Fauvism, these painters developed a sense of color distinctly their own. …

Artful Networking: Art Collecting And Cultural Positioning In Early Qing China - The Case Of Gao Shiqi (1645-1704), Amy Huang

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

In this paper I analyze Gao Shiqi’s高士奇 (1645-1704) collecting practices in the context of early Qing politics. This paper argues that art collecting was used as an effective networking tool and played an significant part in defining Gao Shiqi’s cultural status in the court during the Kangxi reign (r. 1661-1722).

Gao Shiqi rose to prominence as Kangxi Emperor’s favorite courtier despite not having a jinshi degree. Because of his inferior background, Gao Shiqi was under pressure to assert his status within the circle of cultural elite—art collecting was his solution. Analysis of his private art inventory indicates that Gao had …

Field And Factory: Chinese Revolutionary Posters, Molly E. Reynolds

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The images on display for Field and Factory, political propaganda used by the Communist Party of China during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, construct a fictitious world. In perceiving these kinds of illustrations, the audience is asked either to visualize the society in its ideal form or unify in opposition to a national enemy. In the first half of the twentieth century, before the possibilities of the television advertisement were fully realized, posters were one of the most popular forms of propaganda: cheap to produce in mass quantities and simple enough to hang in any public building. The art form’s …

William Hodges And Thomas Daniell: Picturesque Representations Of “Hindoostan”, Nathaniel Fitch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This independent research project is a case study and investigation of William Hodges (1744-1797), Thomas Daniell (1749-1840), and his nephew William Daniell (years). Through the mediums of drawings, oil on canvas paintings, and aquatints prints, these artists created representations of colonial India during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. As such images of India were lacking before they traveled to India, investigating their work is fruitful to addressing the power, challenge, and impact of representation.

This research begins with a description of these artists, the art aesthetic and political context in which they worked. Then, the question of how …

"A Painter's Brush That Also Makes Poems": Contemporary Painting After Northern Song Calligraphy, Andy J. Patton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There is no Western equivalent to the practice of calligraphy in pre-modern China, an aesthetic form which does not resolve itself into a literary object or a visual one. Calligraphy was sustained by a rich and complex body of thought that can fully rival art criticism and theory in the West. To undertake this project, I immersed myself in the study of both key works of calligraphy and the aesthetic that sustained it during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) in China—not in order to practice calligraphy but to transform my own understanding of art and make contemporary Western paintings out …

Prince Sihanouk: The Model Of Absolute Monarchy In Cambodia 1953-1970, Weena Yong

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis addresses Prince Sihanouk and the model of absolute monarchy in Cambodia during his ‘golden era.’ What is the legacy bequeathed to his country that emanated from his years as his country’s autocratic leader (1954-1970)? What did he leave behind? My original hypothesis was that Sihanouk was a libertine and ruthless god-king who had immense pride for his country. He fought for his people and had strong good intentions. Instead, through research, I discovered that there are many good and bad facets of Sihanouk’s past and the political practices that marked his era as Cambodia’s supreme ruler. His legacy …

Shared Landscapes, Cloth And Meaning In The Mindanao Highlands, Cherubim Quizon

Cherubim A Quizon

No abstract provided.

Engendering Modern China: Visual Representations Of The Prc, Jennifer Lee

East Asian Languages and Cultures Department Honors Papers

Propaganda posters have been one of many forms of political media used by modern governments such as the United States, Russia, England, and China, to spread a message across a large area to a wide audience. The popularity of the use of propaganda posters has sparked an interest in the study of posters. China has a long and varied history of the use of posters and propaganda posters. Pre-1949 propaganda posters, especially during the revolutionary period, used woodblock prints with stark lines and deep bright colors. Woodblock prints often employed yellow and red backgrounds to accent the black figures in …

Breakthrough: Work By Contemporary Chinese Women Artists, Sarah Montross, Shu-Chin Tsui, Bowdoin College. Museum Of Art

Museum of Art Exhibition Catalogues

"This brochure accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, from September 27 through December 22, 2013"--Back of cover flap

Confucius Institute Fall 2013 Publication (Report), Dr. Wei-Ping Pan Director

The Confucius Institute Publications

No abstract provided.

Japan: 1400-1600, Tomoko Sakomura

Art & Art History Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Japan: 1600-1750, Tomoko Sakomura

Art & Art History Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Portugal, Jesuits, And Japan: Spiritual Beliefs And Earthly Goods, Victoria Weston

Victoria Weston

This exhibition catalogue brings together an international group of scholars addressing various topics related to Nanban trade screens and the objects and ideas represented in them. The catalogue accompanied the exhibition of the same title at the McMullen Museum, Boston College. Weston authored the Introduction and an essay on trade screens in the show.

Greek Bronze: Holding A Mirror To Life, Expanded Reprint From The Irish Philosophical Yearbook 2006: In Memoriam John J. Cleary 1949-2009, Babette Babich

Babette Babich

To explore the ethical and political role of life-sized bronzes in ancient Greece, as Pliny and others report between 3,000 and 73,000 such statues in a city like Rhodes, this article asks what these bronzes looked like. Using the resources of hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, as well as a review of the nature of bronze and casting techniques, it is argued that the ancient Greeks encountered such statues as images of themselves in agonistic tension in dynamic and political fashion. The Greek saw, and at the same time felt himself regarded by, the statue not as he believed the statue divine …

White Snake, Black Snake Folk Narrative Meets Master Narrative In Qing Dynasty Sichuanese Cross-Stitch Medallions, Cory Willmott

Cory A. Willmott

The cross-stitch medallion in figure 1 was collected by my grandmother, Katherine Willmott, in the early 1920s when she was a missionary in Renshow, Sichuan Province, West China. Many years after I inherited it, I learned that it depicts a folk narrative called “White Snake; Black Snake” that was traditionally performed both on stage in the legitimate theaters and in Chinese shadow puppet dramas (Highbaugh n/d:6).

The story may be summarized as follows: There were two female snakes, White Snake and Black Snake, who were inseparable friends. They both changed into beautiful young women. White Snake got married and bore …

Ganesha: A Study Of Personal Worship To A Personal God, Madeline Taylor, Katherine Garner, Naomi Purnell

Featured Research

Hindu devotees worship Ganesha when they are beginning a new phase or faces obstacles in their lives. In investigating the personal devotion of Hindu gods in India, we have found that there is a difference between the ways a Hindu worships the god Ganesha at a public shrine than in their own home. The main difference in worship style is that in the home, the worshiper acts as his or her own priest. There is room for greater interpretation in worship style and offerings made to the deity. Since our topic is personal devotion, we were drawn to the private …

The Gods Come For Play: Visualizing The Divine In Balinese Theatre, Chandler Payne, John Park

Featured Research

Playwrights, practitioners, and art historians have been shocked and inspired by Balinese theatre time and time again because it reveals the extent of devotion the Balinese have for their religion. Although many researchers have investigated the functionality through the performance aspect of the play, there is a lack of published research devoted how the functionality of the ritual and play are influenced by the physical aesthetic properties of the Barong and Rangda mask. The theatrical aspects are to be considered through investigating these masks in relation to the temple space of the Taman Aran. By investigating the aesthetic properties of …

Haniwa: Constructing A Sacred Place For The Afterlife, Ashlyn Rawls, Clarissa Aliberti, Rylee Baisden

Featured Research

Haniwa are small, hollow terracotta statues that were placed on aristocratic graves during the Kofun period of Japan, which translates as “old tomb.” These unique figures were rather simple at the beginning of their creation, but over time they became increasingly complex taking the forms of people, animals, and other objects. These fascinating funerary objects serve a greater purpose than just ordinary tomb decorations. The haniwa tie into the Confucianist tradition of being made to be used and to protect the spirits of the dead. Influenced by Confucian tradition, in which “filial piety” is recognized as a high level of …

Jayavarmin Vii: Achieving Kingship, Ross Seeman, Mckay Whitacre, David Oppenheim

Featured Research

Jayavarmin VII (r. 1181-1218) exemplifies the nature of achieving divine kingship through his life achievements modeled after the life of Buddha. He was viewed by many as a divine-like figure, through his acts of philanthropy and good deeds for the city. Through this philosophy, Jayavarmin VII facilitated the construction of hospitals, several roads and rest houses. The height of Jayavarmin’s reign was during the construction of the Bayon Temple. By this time, Jayavarmin VII believed he had completed his journey to kingship. This is shown through the massive faces carved in the temple representing either Jayavarmin or Buddha himself. From …