From Monet to Ai Weiwei

Where did modern Asian art come from? What is contemporary Asian art? Inspired by the recent exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Society for Asian Art's Fall 2016 Arts of Asia lectures explore how Asian art has been transformed from the past into something new and relevant for the present. The series starts with two lecture overviews covering important 19th and 20th century art movements, such as impressionism, surrealism, abstraction, and conceptualism. Prominent scholars like Joan Kee and Ming Tiampo will then examine the development of late 19th century and early 20th century pre-war Asian art from areas like Meiji Japan and colonial Southeast Asia through post-war movements like the Gutai Group in Japan, the '85 New Wave in China, and Korea's Avant-Garde Association. The legacy of classical Chinese traditions, Indian nationalism, and Islamic attitudes toward art will also be considered against the backdrop of modernism, concluding with an examination of globalism, new media, and biennials. Image: Mid-Autumn Festival (detail), 1969, by Liu Guosong (Chinese, b. 1932). Ink and colors on paper. Asian Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2003.22. © Liu Guosong. Photograph © Asian Art Museum.