This course will offer an overview of contemporary art and architecture from South, Southeast, and East Asia. Beginning around 1945 and paying special attention to new avant-garde and experimental practices, the lectures will trace the emergence of abstraction, hyperrealism, pop, conceptualism, documentary video and photography, performance, multi-media installations, new media and videoart, feminist and queer practices, site-specific projects, and participatory art. Although the 20th century has often been described as the Asian Century, many parts of the region remained engulfed in political turmoil and civil unrest while others functioned under military rule. The emergence of a range of experimental art and architecture movements coincided with these political developments. Consequently, our account will not only place Asia’s art and architecture within the larger context of anti-censorship protests and civil society activist movements but also situate recent artistic and architectural practices within critical theories of contemporary art history more broadly. 

*This course is remote.