Screen: Medium, Representation, and Global History
The screen is a versatile object with
multivalent functions and meanings. At once
a piece of furniture and an artistic medium, a
screen structures a space, interacts with
people, and provides a material surface for
decoration or painting. It is also a motif often
depicted in pictorial images, charged with
compositional and representational
significance. This seminar surveys the long
traditions of screens in East Asia, their
spread and transformations in New Spain
and Europe in the early modern period, and
the continuous evolvement of the screen
medium in modern art. We will examine
single-panel screens and multi-panel folding
screens made of various materials, ranging
from paper, lacquer, and wood, to glass and
textiles. Topics include early Chinese
screens from archaeological contexts; the
migration of the screens from China to Korea
and Japan and their new developments; the
subjects and techniques of various types of
East Asian screens as well as their uses and
meanings in ritual ceremonies and domestic
interiors; images of screens in Chinese and
Japanese paintings; Japanese nanban
screens depicting Portuguese and Spanish;
the biombo folding screen inspired by East
Asian prototypes made in the New Spain;
collecting, display, and reuse of East Asian
screens in Europe; and screens in the works
of modernist artists such as the Nabis and
Eileen Gray. Close analysis of objects and
visual materials will be the foundation to
develop a conceptual understating of the
screen as a transcultural and multidimensional object. 3 credits. May satisfy
the geocultural or chronological
requirement, depending on final project.