Following decades of multicultural scholarship, History of Art seems poised to move beyond nation-centered narratives. For this purpose the rich record of artistic practice in China offers fertile ground for speculation. If we know, for instance, that landscape painting, art collecting, and critical writing emerged independently at two ends of the Eurasian Continent, will it now be possible to develop meta-theories of “landscape” or “pictorial realism”? Or is the language of art inextricably linked to culturally distinct cognitive and visual practices? This conference seeks to explore meta-disciplinary perspectives around such topics as academies, print, landscape, gardens, fashion, canons, and the language of art itself.

This conference is organized by the U-M Department of History of Art and co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute at the University of Michigan and the U-M Center for Chinese Studies, with additional support from the International Institute, Institute for the Humanities, Rackham Graduate School, Office of the Vice President for Research, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; School of Art & Design, U-M Museum of Art, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, and the Departments of Comparative Literature, Anthropology, Philosophy, and History.