Studies in Asian Art (480-0-1)

Topic

The Other Avant Garde

Instructors

Yuthika Sharma

Meeting Info

Kresge 4354 Art Hist. Sem. Rm.: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Recent scholarship has highlighted the emergence of a cosmopolitan Avant Garde in 1920s the city of Calcutta ignited by a 1922 exhibition of works by Bauhaus artists such as Klee and Kandinsky. Further, scholars have studied a parallel push for a pan-Asian aesthetic emerging out of intense exchanges with artists from Japan. This seminar looks at the long history of these experimental encounters by taking a backward glance into the spaces of British imperial exhibitions in 1903 and 1911 that brought the so-called traditional and experimental paintings and craft objects together. Broadening the arena of modernist approaches, the seminar considers how these exhibitions reconfigured Mughal history and design to revitalize nationalist and revolutionary art practices. Assessment for this seminar will include reading facsimiles of 19th and early 20th century exhibition catalogues and writing two exhibition reviews.

Class Materials (Required)

Readings on Canvas