This study analyzes the transnational interaction of Korean art during the early modern period. By examining practices of collecting and travel I aim to explore how cultural and visual patterns...Show moreThis study analyzes the transnational interaction of Korean art during the early modern period. By examining practices of collecting and travel I aim to explore how cultural and visual patterns from Chinese antiquity are re-contextualized in Joseon Korean art. In this process not only a specific Korean understanding of Chinese antiquity was developed, but Chinese antiquity was in turn also projected upon the Korean landscape. I further argue that artistic developments during the early modern period in Korea, such as true-view painting, should be understood from this transnational perspective, rather than from sino-centric or nativist views.Show less
When contemporary Chinese art first attracted international attention in the 1990s, it was assumed that the violent crackdown of the student protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989 influenced the...Show moreWhen contemporary Chinese art first attracted international attention in the 1990s, it was assumed that the violent crackdown of the student protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989 influenced the development of Chinese art. However, the history of June Fourth remains a blind spot in official Chinese history and only exists in the memories of its witnesses. Although research has been done on the practical restrictions and ideological consequences on art, June Fourth has not yet been analyzed as a subject in contemporary Chinese art. Of course obvious artistic references to the protests are rare; however I propose to research the inclusion of June Fourth in contemporary Chinese art through an analysis of the relation between art and memory. Starting with the relation between art and cultural memory in the People's Republic of China, the essay will continue with the analysis of icons of memory and the relation between the index and memory. Gradually, the thesis will shift into a more abstract analysis of the possible connection between memory and art, through the notion of the post-memory. The influence of June Fourth on contemporary art is complex and exists at multiple levels simultaneously. Ultimately, the thesis intends provide an analysis of contemporary Chinese art through memory, as complementing force to what is acknowledged as (official) history.Show less
Physiognomy, reading fate or character from a person’s face, is now discredited but was once seen as a teachable skill. This thesis presents a cross cultural study of physiognomic knowledge in...Show morePhysiognomy, reading fate or character from a person’s face, is now discredited but was once seen as a teachable skill. This thesis presents a cross cultural study of physiognomic knowledge in three distinct early modern cultures (Europe, China and Mughal India), as represented in figurative art. Artworks studied are mainly paintings, but also some sculpture and printed material, including physiognomic manuals. Using Clifford Geertz’s anthropological approach of identifying how art functions within a “cultural system”, the subsequent interactions are divided into two categories: representations of the Self (elite male patrons, or the artist himself), and representations of the Other (women, the poor, and the foreign). Representations of the Self are found in portraiture. Given the largely unspoken nature of physiognomy, it is necessary to examine how its use may be recognized within portraits. Anxieties surrounding appropriate representations of physiognomy are also important in understanding how art and physiognomy interacted. Conversely, representations of the Other are found in genre paintings and some portraits. The overall impact of physiognomy in these artworks is to emphasise innate differences between the patron Self and his Other. Ultimately, the resulting prevalence of physiognomy in figurative art suggests its transcultural importance within the early modern world.Show less
