Semester:
Offered:
Eugene Wang
Ink painting, a distinct pictorial medium of East Asian art, had its moments of crisis in the 20th century. How to modernize it became a pressing concern and contested matter for generations of artists and theorists. This course traces the historical trajectory of the modernization of ink painting in the Sinosphere. It examines how 20th century painters engaged and negotiated the burden of tradition, and how their own circumstances affected and inflected the disposition of their works. Comparisons are drawn among artists based in different parts of the Sinosphere, who approached the matter differently. Special focus is on the group of artists or artists-to-be who migrated from mainland China to Taiwan and Hong Kong in 1949. Questions raised include: How does the medium take on “modernity”? How does ink landscapes map out a mindscape? Is it a language of thought? Can the “ineffable” medium acquire a “voice” and how? Conducted in the Harvard Art Museum study center, the course aligns the first-hand close-looking of artworks in the museum collection with historicizing and theoretical perspectives. Enrollment limited to 15.