East Asian Art

Introduction:

The fourteen-month MA in East Asian Art is validated by the University of Manchester. Designed to provide a clear understanding of East Asian art and the relationship between the art object and the prevailing social religious and historical conditions.

Students learn how the production and understanding of East Asian art is influenced by ideas, materials and techniques from other areas. They develop their research skills and learn to communicate knowledge and critical awareness. They also acquire the transferable skills necessary for a career in the academic and professional art worlds.

The programme begins with two weeks of introductory lectures and seminars, which address the methodology of the programme and allow assessment of the students' abilities and interests.

Course material is structured into three strands comprising theoretical and general lectures, and case studies.

The teaching in each strand is backed up by seminars and visits.

The first strand considers ritual and religious art; the second painting and graphic art; and the third decorative art of East Asia. Each student contributes to two seminars in each of the strands.

THE THREE STRANDS

1. Ritual and Religious Art of East Asia

This strand first considers ritual objects from the early civilisations in China, Korea and Japan. The art, technology and social organisation of the early cultures are examined through archaeological evidence, in particular through surviving burial goods made from ceramic, bronze and jade. Hereafter, study of the religious art of East Asia will include the history of the introduction of Buddhism to China, Korea and Japan, and the doctrinal and iconographic principles of the art associated with Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and other religions in East Asia. Emphasis will be given to the eastward transmission of styles of Buddhist art along the Silk Route in the art of cave-shrines, and the sculpture and architecture of the oasis settlements of Chinese Central Asia dating from the fourth to the eleventh centuries. Aspects of later religious art in wall-paintings and in paintings on paper and silk will be examined, together with the large and small sculptural art in stone, bronze and clay.

2. Painting and Graphic Art of East Asia

The programme introduces the aesthetic principles and critical terminology for examining East Asian painting and calligraphy and the related art of pictorial printing. Aspects of this material are chosen for comparative analysis in discussing the transmission of style between China, Korea and Japan, and other East Asian cultures and, more recently, the West. Within this area subjects are chosen from a range of representational themes, including landscape, figure, and bird and flower subjects. Collecting and connoisseurship, patronage, amateur and professional status, artistic practice, revival and reinterpretation, and innovation and modernity are discussed. Contemporary theoretical and philosophical texts are examined in the interpretation of the work of individual artists and artistic movements. Certain works are chosen for detailed discussion from the point of view of composition, technique and the interpretation of inscriptions using translations.

3. Decorative Art of East Asia

This strand examines issues relating to the history of the decorative art of China, Korea, Japan and South East Asia. This encompasses the production of objects made in a variety of materials including lacquer, ivory, jade, glass, bronze, gold, silver, and ceramics. Topics discussed include the evolution of style, the question of taste and the impact of Western trade and culture. Details of technique and manufacture will also be considered.

The programme consists of three fifteen-week sessions with a one-month vacation between the first and second, and a two-month vacation between the second and third, thus allowing students opportunities for travel and research. The first two sessions each include a reading week and conclude with an assessment week.

The dominant feature of Semester I is the historical progression of the core lectures following the three strands supported by visits, seminars and written work. In Semester I each student will complete an essay, thus developing the ability to structure an argument in clear English

Seminars take different forms: object-based, text-based or research methodology. Object-based seminars centre upon research or tasks allocated by tutors and are designed to acquaint students with art objects, usually in a museum or gallery. Text-based seminars act as a forum for the discussion of a selection of key texts by archaeologists, anthropologists, social historians, art historians and theorists. They are intended to help students understand the links between writing and art in the relevant period; to allow them to understand and manipulate the particular languages of art criticism, and to encourage the development of the students as informed, confident individuals. Research methodology seminars prepare students for their end of semester project and research in their subsequent dissertation. Attention is paid to writing and research skills and these seminars are especially geared to students who have been out of education for some while or who are not used English academic writing.

Visits are a major component of the programme and are designed to expose the students to the practical, 'hands-on' approach, and to develop their critical interpretation of the art object and its context. Visits also help students improve their visual and critical acuity. Study visits abroad in Semesters I and II allow students to build up a series of reference points and to examine art objects not available in Britain.

Contact is fostered between students and professionals in the art world by visits to the auction house for previews of sales led by departmental experts. Guest lecturers include art consultants, exhibition organisers, auction house experts and dealers.

All students are offered personal tutorials. Marked, assessed work with comments is handed back to students in individual tutorials for discussion.

Object reports develop out of the object-based seminars described. Students learn to develop their original analysis of an object placing it in its historical, social and philosophical context. Full bibliographical references and comparative examples are required.

Oral presentations occur throughout the first two semesters and train future

professionals to present ideas clearly, concisely and persuasively.

There are two Image Identification and Analysis Tests during Semester I, requiring students to identify and analyse images of a range of work seen and discussed in lectures and visits. Slides are chosen to test students' visual acuity and their ability to contextualise and apply comparative methods in their analysis.

A Comparative Object Report is a major element of the first semester and underlines the overall academic approach developed during this period. Students are presented with three unidentified images and are expected to identify materials and techniques, and apply specialist terminology in describing the object. They are given two weeks in which to work together to identify images through oral and written presentations using archaeological, documentary or stylistic evidence.

Essay topics are given early in the semester to give the students time to bring together aspects from two or more of the strands and to relate theory to practice. This helps to develop the ability to structure an argument, write clear English and to research and synthesise material. Students must achieve an average mark of at least 40% in Semester I to progress to Semester II.

As lectures form the core of Semester I, seminars do in Semester II. They become more discursive in nature and the programme is increasingly geared to group discussion and to developing individual research. Lectures continue in the first half of the semester, completing the three lecture strands. Students embark upon a specialist option choosing from subjects including Trade Art, Contemporary Art in Asia, and the Art Markets, present a seminar and write a research essay. This semester ends with an exam and the presentation of dissertation research proposals.

Object seminars continue in this semester, but allow increasing latitude in the choice of objects chosen for discussion. Students select a topic for the final seminar, which may relate to any of the three stands or to the option the student undertook. The student researches material and presents it to the seminar group. After discussion and feedback it is written up as the Extended Research Essay.

Visits continue throughout Semester I, increasing students' knowledge and understanding of East Asian art and their skill in analysing and discussing it.

In Dissertation Seminars students present their proposed subjects for discussion and an opportunity is given to hear about fellow students' research.

Tutorials provide an opportunity to discuss potential seminar topics, research venues and bibliographic material, methodological approaches and modes of presentation. Career plans, criticism of the programme and pastoral matters are also discussed.

The final version of the Extended Research Essay is written, in which students are expected to demonstrate that they have learned to refine ideas from the oral presentations.

The final examination forms a summation of all three strands, as well as referring back to visits.

In order to proceed to Semester III, MA students must submit a short Research Proposal for their final dissertation for approval, and achieve an average grade of 50%. Those who are not continuing to the dissertation stage will be awarded a Postgraduate Diploma after writing an essay combining theoretical, historical and practical work.

The primary teaching mode in Semester III is the tutorial, leaving students free to pursue their research. In these tutorial sessions students must demonstrate that they have gained the necessary skills in theory and methodology to write the Dissertation. The Dissertation will be a synthesis of all the preceding work including the practical, historical and theoretical aspects of the course, and their application to the chosen subject.

FIELDTRIPS

The fieldtrips give the students the opportunity to see relevant collections in museums outside London and to visit special exhibitions which are relevant to the content of the course. In semester I there is a three-day trip to Europe, including stays in one or two European cities, where the students will have the opportunity to visit museums with important collections of East Asian art. In Semester II, students will go to China for at ten-day trip to see some of the major museums, archaeological and art historical sites which may include the Shanghai Museum, museums in Zhengzhou, the Buddhist cave-shrines at Longmen, and the kiln-sites at Jingdezhen.