This course, for which no prior experience of Chinese art or history is required, will provide an overview of developments in the visual arts of China from the Neolithic period to the present. Special attention will be devoted to relating these developments to broader changes within culture. Some of the questions we will address include: What are the conventions and limits of representing deities in art? How do we understand different notions of naturalism in painting? How did artists take on political issues? Who were the various audiences that artists addressed in their work? How do we gauge their responses? Throughout this course, we will also consider the relationship between collecting and art history, how art collecting shaped and was shaped by changing notions of “China,” and the challenges of studying artifacts that have been removed from their original contexts.

*This course will not meet for discussion section.