Author: dongshan

4:30pm at CWAC 156.

Title: “Risō Sculptures in Meiji Japan: Takenouchi Hisakazu’s Gigeiten and the Nihonga Style”

Abstract: This paper is a work-in-progress that attempts to examine Takenouchi Hisakazu’s 竹内久一 (1857–1916, alt. Takeuchi Kyūichi) wooden sculpture Gigeiten 伎芸天 (The Divinity of the Arts, Gigeiten, 1893) as one of the first riso 理想 sculptures, a distinctive characteristic that is strongly associated with nihonga paintings and intellectual Okakura Kakuzō 岡倉覚三 (alt. Okakura Tenshin 岡倉天心, 1862–1913). Takenouchi, influenced by Okakura, attempted to integrate the Western sculptural style to the already-existing “traditional” style in Japan. This approach and idea was supposed to become an “ultimate” style that Japan could call its own. While this style did not succeed in becoming permanent in Japan, I argue that the Gigeitenwas not only a sculpture but also a “vision” for Japanese sculptural art going forward. For this presentation, as I am still in the process of researching certain aspects that relate to the risō and nihonga paintings, I will present on how I first came to study this concept as a whole, as well as presenting on my current progress in my research.

Persons with concerns regarding accessibility please contact Dongshan Zhang at dongshan@uchicago.edu

(This program is sponsored by the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies)

Visual and Material Perspectives on East Asia is proud to present our schedule for Winter 2019

All sessions unless otherwise noted will take place on Fridays 4:30-6:30pm in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center (CWAC) Room 156

January 25, Minori Egashira, Ph. D Student

Department of Art History, University of Chicago

“Risō Sculptures in Meiji Japan: Takenouchi Hisakazu’s Gigeiten and the Nihonga Style.”

February 8, Yueling Ji, Ph. D Student

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

“Queering the Sino-Soviet Alliance Posters.”

February 21, Jenny Lee.

(Cancelled).

March 1, Jeehey Kim, Postdoctoral Instructor

Department of Art History, University of Chicago

“Funerary Photo-portraiture in East Asia.”

March 1, (Special Joint Event with APEA)So Hye Kim, PhD Candidate,

EALC, University of Chicago

“Beyond the Divided Korea: Zhang Lu’s Dooman River (2009)”

We look forward to your attendance and hope you will share this with all who might also be interested in joining our community. Please direct questions and inquiries to Dongshan Zhang at dongshan@uchicago.edu.

4:30pm at CWAC 156.

Title: “Framing Gandhāran Art: Space Construction in Narrative Reliefs”

The question of influence in the buddhist art of Gandhāra, a region comprising part of modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been the object of heated debate for decades: the quest for sources – of style, of imagery, of content – has been variously identified in Greece, Rome, Parthia, India. In an effort to both move away from and reassess the thorny issue of influence, this paper brings the physical and conceptual margin at the center, and focuses on framing devices. Specifically, it will investigate the employment of architectural elements at the boundaries and as the boundaries of devotional space in narrative reliefs that were once attached to stupas. It will be argued in favour of the necessity of a critical and systematic evaluation of the style and meaning of these framing devices within the cultural milieu of early Buddhist art in the north-western Indian regions.

Persons with concerns regarding accessibility please contact Dongshan Zhang at dongshan@uchicago.edu

4:30pm at CWAC 156.

Title: A Garden Painting during the Bloody Donglin Purge ca. 1625-1627

Abstract: Significant research in recent decades illuminates how officials in Ming imperial China (1368–1664) climbed the social ladder through collegial garden festivities, and how garden paintings, ​as ​commemorative byproducts of these gatherings, integrate natural beauty and political harmony. This paper expands upon existing scholarship by exploring a different type of garden painting, one that portrays properties constructed during the imperial massacre of 1625–1627. In an era scarred by blood, factional struggles, and eunuch persecutions against Donglin Academy members, gardens owned and named by Donglin sympathizers covertly broadcast camouflaged political messages. This paper uses the garden painting for Chen Jiru as a case study to show that some late-Ming gardens served as private refuges from political murders, as well as protests against imperial violence targeting Donglin scholars.

Persons with concerns regarding accessibility please contact Dongshan Zhang at dongshan@uchicago.edu

(This event is sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies of University of Chicago)

Best Regards,

Dongshan

November 9. 4:30pm at CWAC 156.

Title: “Mokuan’s Four Sleepers: The Ultimate Zen Painting.”

Abstract: The twelfth through fourteenth centuries witnessed a flourishing Chan/Zen macroculture that spanned the China Sea in all directions and witnessed thousands of Japanese monks travel to monastic centers in the Jiangnan region for study and training. The legacy of the monk-painters that emerged within this interregional sphere are preserved in scores of ink paintings in Japanese collections. This lecture does a deep dive into the artistry of the Zen monk-painter through a reading of Mokuan Reien’s The Four Sleepers (Shisui zu 四睡図), one of the most celebrated works of its kind. Mokuan’s painting showcases several of the unique ways in which Zen painting developed subject matter, appropriated folkloric visual culture, paired words and images in complementary (or more often contradictory) ways, and positioned itself in mutualism to literati painting.

(This program is sponsored by the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies)

Visual and Material Perspectives on East Asia is proud to present our schedule for Fall 2018

All sessions unless otherwise noted will take place on Fridays 4:30-6:30pm in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center (CWAC) Room 156

October 5, Yoon-Jee Choi, Ph. D Student

Department of Art History, University of Chicago

“The Voyage of the Soy Sauce Bottle: The Material Culture of Comprador Bottles.”

November 9, Yukio Lippit, Professor of History of Art and Architecture Japanese Art,

Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University

“The Ultimate Zen Painting: Mokuan’s Four Sleepers.”

November 16, Huiping Pang, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoc Fellow

Department of Asian Art, The Art Institute of Chicago

“A Garden-Painting during the Bloody Donglin Purge ca. 1625-1627.”

(Location TBD)

December 7, Alice Casalini, Ph. D Student

Department of Art History, University of Chicago

“Framing Gandhāran Art: Space Construction in Narrative Reliefs.”

We look forward to your attendance and hope you will share this with all who might also be interested in joining our community. Please direct questions and inquiries to Dongshan Zhang at dongshan@uchicago.edu.