This course examines art in China since ca. 1900, a period of major cultural transformation. Beginning with the collapse of the 2000-year-old imperial system and ending with the globalized nation-state, students will analyze works in a wide range of media, including ink and oil painting, printmaking and photography, architecture, and video and performance art. Modes and movements range from “national painting” (guohua) and modernist design to socialist realism and state propaganda, contemporary craft, and experimental calligraphy.
