This course is intended as an introduction to the art and architecture of modern South, Southeast, and East Asia. Asia, of course, is as vast as it is diverse. Keeping this in mind, this course will not attempt an encyclopedic survey of modern Asian art. Instead, using a comparative perspective, each week will focus on a set of case studies—the work of particular artists and art movements or the architecture of specific Asian cities—to reconstruct an expansive history of modern art and architecture in Asia from 1800 to the present. Class lectures will be complemented by a close virtual examination of collections of Asian art on campus and in the Bay Area. Simultaneously, taking advantage of our location in the Pacific Rim and the presence of numerous diasporic Asian artists in the area, we will seek out histories of modern Asian art in our localities, neighborhoods, and communities. 

Meets Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth

Meets Historical Studies, L&S Breadth