Time Schedule:
Giuseppina A Testa
ART H 311
Seattle Campus
An introduction to the role of painting in Chinese cultural history, with attention to regional geography, social structure, gender, traditional philosophies, twentieth-century socialism, and the patterns of Chinese history.
Class description
This course will trace the development of pictorial art in China from prehistoric through modern times within its historical and philosophical contexts. Issues of examination will include the themes, styles, and functions of Chinese painting. Besides introducing the major masters of each period in social and historical context, the lectures also present the esthetic concepts and theories that underlie traditional connoisseurship. Special attention will be given to painting practice, its intersection with the art of calligraphy (and the authority of writing as the cultural backdrop for this intersection), patronage, regional diversity, the relationship of word and image, amateurism vs. professionalism, and the introduction of foreign elements. Chinese painting is the only tradition in world art that can rival the European painting tradition in the quantity and diversity of its output, the number of recorded artists of note, the complexity of aesthetic issues attached to it, and the sophistication of the written literature that accompanies it through the centuries. Focusing on both objects and the textual sources for Chinese art theories, this course will explore the differences between Western methodological approaches to Chinese painting and the theories of painting developed by the Chinese themselves.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
