This course focuses on modern and contemporary Asian American art and architecture from the mid-1800s to the present. It is not intended to be an encyclopedic survey of Asian American art. Rather, each class uses case studies—the work of a particular artist, architect, or an art group—to examine what Asian American art looked like at specific historical junctures and what it meant to be an Asian American artist. We will trace how social and legislative processes such as immigration policies, Japanese internment, and struggles over citizenship rights impacted the Asian American community and shaped artistic practices. We will be equally attentive to solidarity movements that united Asian American artists with African American artists. Furthermore, we will follow several major American artists and architects who traveled to various Asian countries and collaborated with artists there. Cubism, abstraction, photographic pictorialism, mural painting and public art, conceptualism, video art, performance, feminist and queer practices, site-specific projects, and participatory art projects will be discussed alongside architecture and design. Our aim will be to reconstruct an expansive history of Asian American art and situate this history within the larger history of American art and architecture.

This course fulfills the following Major requirements: Geographical area (B) or (C), and Chronological period (III), based on the topic of the final research paper or project.