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The Senses of Painting in China: 1790-1840

Michael Hatch
November 28, 2018
All Day
60 Jennings Hall

A lecture by Michael Hatch, Assistant Professor, East Asian Art History, Miami University

What have art historians tended to value most in the history Chinese painting? How have those values led to the celebration of some periods of painting and to the neglect of others? Taking the under-studied period of early nineteenth-century painting in China as a starting point, this lecture examines some of the core values of Chinese painting scholarship in order to consider the possibilities for experiencing Chinese paintings anew. In particular, a sensory history of Chinese painting is proposed, one that shifts attention to the bodily appeals that paintings were designed to make to their audiences, not just in terms of vision, but also in terms of touch, smell, and sound.

This event is made possible in part by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center and by the OSU Institute for Chinese Studies.