This course will examine major issues in the art world of twentieth century China, as the nation and its artists have struggled with the challenges of modernizing a traditional society. We will begin with the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, to examine two schools in which modern and traditional painting meet, the Shanghai and Lingnan schools. We will then focus on the modernity vs. tradition debates of the Republican period, in which partisans of wholesale Westernization and preservers of the National Essence contended. The discussion will then proceed to topics such as: China's Seduction by the West: Modern Chinese Oil Painting in the 1920s and 1930s; China Roars: The Rise and Fall of the Avant-Garde Woodcut Movement; Commercial Art and China's Modernization; The Victory of Socialist Realism: Oil Painting and the New Guohua 1950-1965; Idol and Ideal: Art in the Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Era; Reopening to the West: The New Wave Movement, 1984-1989; The New Cosmopolitan Era: Art from 1990 to present. We will conclude with a look at some hot topics in the Chinese art world today, including art and technology, urban reconstruction, and art for the 2008 Olympics. Students will be encouraged to relate written work to the current Chinese art exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art. Format: lecture. Requirements: class discussion, two examinations, mid-term essay, and a 10- to 12- page term paper. No enrollment limit. Satisfies the non-western requirement.

Hour:ANDREWS