ARTH 19
Chinese Painting: Deep Looking Winter 2025

This course focuses on the art of painting in China across five dynasties (Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing), spanning from the seventh to the nineteenth century. Instead of a lecture-survey class format, students will participate in intensive close-looking exercises and engage in seminar-style discussions on a selection of masterpieces (“deep looking”) in each class, under the guidance of the instructor. These exercises will revolve around a collection of high-quality facsimiles of the paintings, supplemented by high-definition digital images when necessary, to replicate the embodied viewing experience as demanded by the traditional formats of Chinese painting. In addition to gaining an introduction to the history of Chinese painting through the dynasties, students will develop critical skills in visually analyzing the style, composition, and brushstrokes of various painting genres, while also exploring how these aspects of image-making mediated ideas throughout history in China.