CUMT 1000 Interpretation of Art

Prof. Pedith Chan

Tel: 3943 5270
Email: pedithchan@cuhk.edu.hk
Class meetings:
Lecture: Thursdays 9:30-11:15, Tutorial: T01 11:30-12:15 or T02 12:30-1:15

Course Aims

Targeting at students with no prior knowledge of art history, this course introduces students
to methodologies and theories currently used by art historians and curators to analyse and
interpret works of art. The course covers a range of themes such as representation,
expression, form, style, Formalism, Iconography, Marxism, Gender etc. Using modern and
contemporary Chinese art as examples, the course will equip students with transferable and
analytic skills, knowledge of modern and contemporary Chinese art, aesthetic sensibility,
and theoretical literacy, encouraging them to apply these methods and knowledge to the
study of visual art.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the basic approaches and methodologies in art

appreciation;
• Understand of key issues of the visual arts in modern and contemporary China;
• Demonstrate facility in research skills and familiarity with primary and secondary
sources;
• Demonstrate the ability to analyse critically works of art by adopting appropriate
theories and methodologies.

Weekly Topics and Readings

Week 1(7 Sept) Introduction to the Course and defining art
Required reading:
*Preziosi, Donald. ‘Art History: Making the Visible Legible’ (1998), in D. Preziosi (ed.),
The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2009), 7-11. [e-book]
*Martin Powers. ‘Introduction’, in Martin Powers and Katherine Tsiang eds., A
Companion to Chinese Art (John Wiley & Sons: 2016), 1-25. [e-book]

WATCH: ‘Iftikhar Dadi on the role of art and its relation to society’, 15 May 2017,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqapOCOMppA

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Week 2 (14 Sept) Class will not meet
The course instructor will attend an international conference, so class will not meet, and a
fieldtrip will be arranged on 28 Oct, Saturday.

Week 3 (21 Sept) The Language of Visual Experience I

Required reading:
*Mary Acton, Chapter 1 and 2, Learning to Look at Paintings 2nd ed. (London: Routledge:
2009) 1-55. [blackboard]
*Watch: V& A Museum: How was it made? Silk Painting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Dn2OkwlQg

Week 4 (28 Sept) The Language of Visual Experience II

Required reading:
*Mary Acton, Chapter 4 and 5, in Learning to Look at Paintings2nd ed. (London: Routledge:
2009), 88-134. [blackboard]
*Susan Bush and Hiso-yen Shih eds., Chapter 1, Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Hong
Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012),18-44. [e-book]
Tutorial: Understanding of visual language

Week 5 (5 Oct) Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art

Required reading:
*Craig Clunas, Chapter 5, in Art in China (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 191-
235. [blackboard]
*Julia Andrews and Kuiyi Sheng, ‘Art in the Creation of a New Nation’, in The Art of
Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 27-45. [e-book]
Tutorial: primary and secondary source

Week 6 (12 Oct) Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art

* Julia Andrews, ‘The Art of the Cultural Revolution,’ in Richard King ed., Art in Turmoil:
The Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 (Vancouver: Univ. of British Columbia Press,
2010), 27- 57. [e-book]
*Julia F. Andrews and Gao Minglu, ‘The avant-garde’s challenge to official art’, in
Deborah S. Davis, et al eds, Urban Spaces in Contemporary China (Washington and
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 221-78. [blackboard]
Tutorial: writing about art

Week 7 (19 Oct) Formalism and Style

Required reading:
*Laurie Schneider Adams, Chapter 2, ‘Formalism and Style’, in The Methodologies of Art
(Oxford: Westview Press, 2010), 21-42. [e-book]
*Heinrich Wӧlfflin, ‘Principles of Art History’ [1915], in D. Preziosi (ed.), The Art of Art
History: A Critical Anthology, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 119-128.
[e-book]
Tutorial: methods

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Week 8 (26 Oct) Iconography and Subject Matter
Required reading:
*Laurie Schneider Adams, Chapter 3, ‘Iconography’, in The Methodologies of Art (Oxford:
Westview Press, 2010), 43-64. [e-book]
*Erwin Panofksy, ‘Iconography and Iconology: An Introduction to the Study of
Renaissance Art’ [1939], in D. Preziosi (ed.), The Art of Art History: A Critical
Anthology, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 220-35. [e-book]
Tutorial: Student presentation (Group 1 Formalism and Style)

(28 Oct, Saturday) Fieldtrip to Hong Kong Museum of to visit the exhibition Art
Personalised: Masterpieces from the HKMoA (TBC)
https://hk.art.museum/en/web/ma/exhibitions-and-events/art-personalised-masterpieces-
from-the-hkmoa.html

Week 9 (2 Nov) Marxism and the social history of art

Required reading:
*Laurie Schneider Adams, Chapter 4, ‘Contextual Approaches I: Marxism, Orientalism,
Colonialism, and Racial Iconography’, in The Methodologies of Art (Oxford: Westview
Press, 2010), 65-96. [e-book]
*Craig Clunas, ‘Social History of Art’, in R. S. Nelson and R. Shiff (eds.), Critical Terms
for Art History, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 465-477. [blackboard]
Tutorial: Student presentation (Group 2 Iconography and Subject Matter)

Week 10 (9 Nov) Congregation (full-time undergraduate classes suspended)

Week 11(16 Nov) Feminism and Gender

Required Reading:
*Laurie Schneider Adams, Chapter 5, ‘Contextual Approaches II: Feminism and Gender’,
in The Methodologies of Art (Oxford: Westview Press, 2010), 97-124. [e-book]
*Linda Nochlin, ‘Why There Have Been No Great Women Artists,’ in Women, Art and
Power and Other Essays (New York: Harper and Row, 1989), 145-178. [e-book]
Tutorial: Student presentation (Group 3 Marxism and the social history of art)

Week 12 (23 Nov) Biography and Autobiography

Required Reading:
*Laurie Schneider Adams, Chapter 6, ‘Biography and Autobiography’, in The
Methodologies of Art (Oxford: Westview Press, 2010), 125-57. [e-book]
*Michel Foucault, ‘What is an Author?’ [1969], in D. Preziosi (ed.), The Art of Art
History: A Critical Anthology, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 321-334.
[e-book]
Tutorial: Student presentation (Group 4 Feminism and Gender)

Week 13 (30 Nov) The Politics of Display and Wrap Up

*Timothy Mitchell, ‘Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order’ [1989], in D. Preziosi
(ed.), The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2009), 409-423. [e-book]

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*Carol Duncan, ‘The Art Museum as Ritual’ [1995], in D. Preziosi (ed.), The Art of Art
History: A Critical Anthology, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 424-434.
[e-book]
Tutorial: Student presentation (Group 5 Biography and Autobiography)

Course Assessment
1. Class Participation (10 %) (including fieldtrip)
2. Group Presentation (40 %)
3. Group video (10%)
4. Final Examination (40 %)

Course Requirements
Readings:
Students must read the required texts before the relevant lecture, and are encouraged to
discuss the required readings during the class and tutorial.

Participation:
Students are encouraged to take part actively in class.

Group Presentation:
Students are required to form a group and give a group presentation in which they introduce
and discuss the required reading (concept and methodology) and apply the concept and
methodology to analyse works of art (contemporary Chinese art) they chosen (4-5
artworks) from the collections of
1. M+ Museum http://www.westkowloon.hk/en/mpluscollection ,
2. Hong Kong Museum of Art
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/partner/hong-kong-museum-of-art

Presentation outline should be sent to the teacher one week before the presentation. The
presentation should last for 30 minutes, followed by 10-minute Q&A.

Group Video:
Student groups are required to choose one artwork from the field trip and create a short
video (1 to 2 minutes) that applies the approach discussed in the course to introduce the
artwork to the public. You may use the app “Canva” to create your video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tECa1RO22Qo

Examination:
The open book examination covers the important concepts introduced in the course. You
are expected to be able to use different methodologies to analyse works of art.

Academic Honesty:
Papers with any plagiarized content will receive an ‘F’ with no chance for a rewrite. Clear
evidence of cheating on an exam will also result in a grade of ‘F’.

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 Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work,
and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy
and regulations. Details may be found at
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they
are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all students of the same group should be asked to
sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary
actions should there be any plagiarized contents in the group project, irrespective
of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed
directly or indirectly to the plagiarized contents.

• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally

text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt,
will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the
assignment.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose
(e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this
effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submission. It is
common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own
work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course
teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

Required Readings
Selections from:
Laurie Schneider Adams. The Methodologies of Art: An Introduction (Oxford: Westview
Press, 2010)
Mary Acton. Learning to Look At Paintings, 2nd edition (London: Routledge, 2009)
Julia F. Andrews and Kuiyi Shen. The Art of Modern China (Berkeley: University of
California Press, c 2012)
Susan Bush and Hiso-yen Shih eds. Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge, Mass.:
Published for the Harvard-Yenching Institute by Harvard University Press, 1985)
Craig Clunas. Art in China (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)
Anne D’Alleva, Methods and Theories of Art History, 2nd edition (London: Laurence King
Publishing, 2012)
Martin Powers and Katherine Tsiang eds., A Companion to Chinese Art (John Wiley &
Sons: 2016)
Donald Preziosi (ed.), The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, 2nd ed (Oxford: Oxford

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University Press, 2009)
Michael Sullivan. Art and Artists of Twentieth-century China (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1996)

Suggested Readings
Julia Andrews. Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-1979
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994)
Julia F. Andrews. A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-
century China (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1998) [open library: archive.org]
Richard M. Barnhart etc eds. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (New Haven:
Yale University Press, c1997)
Pedith Chan, The Making of A Modern Art World: Institutionalisation and Legitimisation
of Guohua in Republican Shanghai (Leiden: Brill, 2017)
John Crespi, Manhua Modernity (California: University of California Press, 2020) [open
access]
Kirk Denton, Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in
Postsocialist China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2014)
Wen C. Fong, Between Two Cultures: Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century
Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art (New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001)
[Metropolitan Museum of Art E-book]
Michael Hatt and Charlotte Klonk. Art History: A Critical Introduction to Its Methods
(Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2006)
Christine Ho, Drawing from Life: Sketching and Socialist Realism in the People's Republic
of China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2020)
Richard King eds. Art in Turmoil: The Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966-76 (Columbia:
UBC press, 2010) Ellen Johnson Laing, The Winking Owl: Art in the People's Republic of
China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988)
Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff eds. Critical Terms for Art History, 2nd edition
(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003)
J. Noth, I Pohlmann, and I. C. Reschke eds. China Avant-Garde: Counter-Currents in Art
and Culture (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994)
Paul Smith and Carolyn Wilde eds. A Companion to Art Theory (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers Ltd, 2002)
Xiaobing Tang. Origins of the Chinese Avant-Garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement
(Berkeley, 2008)
Wu Hung. Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents (New York; Museum of
Modern Art, 2010)Martina Koppel Yang, Semiotic Warfare: The Chinese Avant-Garde,
1979-1989 (Hong Kong: timezone 8, 2003)

Web-Based Resources:
In addition to printed sources, there are some excellent websites around:
This is the online version of the Dictionary of Art.
http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/

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This is basically an on-line version of Julia Andrews, A Century in Crisis: Modernity and
Tradition in 20th-century Chinese Art (New York, 1998), and has a very good range of
illustrations. https://huntingtonarchive.org/Exhibitions/5000YearsExhibit_painting.php
M+ Museum https://collections.mplus.org.hk/en/
The Mao Era in Objects https://maoeraobjects.ac.uk/
Documenting Contemporary Chinese art by Asia Art Archive,
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbdDVbaq3yjWOwsw2F1zenQ

Artists websites:
http://www.caiguoqiang.com Cai Guo-qiang
http://www.caofei.com Cao Fei
http://www.zhanghuan.com Zhang Huan
http://www.pengweiart.cn/en/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=lists&catid=2 Peng Wei

Grade Descriptors

Grade Overall course

A Outstanding performance on all learning outcomes.

A- Generally outstanding performance on all (or almost all) learning
outcomes.
B Substantial performance on all learning outcomes, OR high
performance on some learning outcomes which compensates for
less satisfactory performance on others, resulting in overall
substantial performance.
C Satisfactory performance on the majority of learning outcomes,
possibly with a few weaknesses.
D Barely satisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes
F Unsatisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes, OR
failure to meet specified assessment requirements.