Discussion on Asian art

Date: Monday, Nov. 29th.
Our discussion today revolved around Asian art and understanding it with a Western upbringing (education, society, etc). Some of our main topics were:
1) Exposure to Asian art (personal and in general)
--From where do you know about Asian art? How do you think this has affected your views on Asian art?
2) Religion, wealth, and commission. Here, we compared the Scrovegni Chapel in in Italy to the Sanchi stupa in India. Some of our main points within this topic were: commissions to gain favor with the God(s), and establishing wealth and power.
3) Symbolism: spiritual vs. religious, and assumptions that Asian art is serene, and understanding that symbolism is often political, and that these principles are universal.
4) Art v. artifact- discussion of museum viewing and how it affects the relationship between viewer and object. (How is Western art shown in comparison to Eastern art?)

A couple of questions that we can answer on the blog (we didn't have time to get to them) are:
1) How does what we know about Asian art influence how we see contemporary Asian art?
2) How does what we assume about Asian art influence how we see contemporary Asian art?
And to help you understand some of what contemporary Asian art can be (because it is limitless), here are some links:
Asian Art Now
Art Asia Fair
Thavibu (has art from Thailand, Vietnam, and Burma
Let me know if you would like more images or any other information!
Sarah