1143中國繪畫理論(Theory of Chinese Painting)

In this class, we will rethink the foundations on which our knowledge of Chinese painting rests. In a first part, we will think about the politics of painting in premodern China, considering particularly issues such as personal style and its relationship to the environment and the purported independence of Chinese painting from transcultural “influences.” The class’s second part focuses on some major landscape painting subjects and their changes throughout time. In its last part, the class addresses a diversity of painting practices and subjects that were shaped by the geographical areas in which painting was done or which it addressed. By doing so, we will deconstruct essentializing notions of “Chinese painting” and learn about a variety of theories that animated a body of works that have come down to us and are often treated as a homogeneous whole.