This course provides an introduction to modern and contemporary art in East Asia with particular attention to their histories, practices and contexts. In particular, it will explore the varied conditions and trajectories of modern and contemporary art in the region – including those of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea – and the ways in which these are shaped by local, regional and global forces and relations. The course will situate critical writing and case studies of modern and contemporary East Asian art in dialogue with fundamental concepts in art history and theory (such as modernism and the avant-garde and the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity) as well as debates about the role of colonialism, the Cold War, democratic transition and globalization in shaping the trajectories of art and exhibition-making in the region.
Indicative References
David Clarke, Hong Art: Culture and Decolonization, Reaktion Books, London, 2001
Joan Kee, Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method, University of Minesota Press, Mineapolis, 2013
Ming Tiampo, Gutai: Decentring Modernism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011
Wu Hung and Peggy Wang (eds), Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, Museum of Modern Art New York, 2010
