ARH 208: History of Chinese Art

This course is a highly selective survey of the arts of China, designed to introduce students to important monuments of Chinese art and to the historical, philosophical, and religious contexts within which they were produced. Topics to be covered include jade and pottery cultures of the neolithic period, the manufacture and ritual use of bronze vessels in the Shang dynasty, the unification of China in the Qin period, funerary art and architecture of the Han, the evolution of Buddhist art and architecture, and painting traditions associated with the Imperial court, the commercial art market, and the world of the scholar/official. This course also looks at some examples of modern and contemporary art in China, focusing in particular on ways in which artists of today continue to engage the past in various ways.  You will  complete two brief museum assignments that will introduce your  to the rich collection of Chinese art housed on campus in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum.