2020-21 Academic Catalog

Since the tenth century in China, a tension emerges between art created as a means of self expression and works which were intended to display social status and political power and to convey conventional values. This course concentrates on the primary site of this tension, the art of painting. We will explore such issues as the influence of Confucian and Daoist philosophy on painting and calligraphy, the changing perception of nature and the natural in art, the politics of style, and the increasing dominance of poetry rather than narrative as a conceptual construct for painting.