Arts of Asia Spring 2024 Echoes of the Past, Visions of the Future

We are no longer accepting registrations for this lecture series. We encourage you to drop in to the lectures in person in Samsung Hall in the Asian Art Museum.

No culture exists in a vacuum, without a context or a past. During this lecture series, we will examine the ways historical ideas, forms, and techniques continue to shape the arts and cultures of today. We will start with archeological explorations, move on to artists who continue ancient traditions, and bring in contemporary artists referencing and exploring the past.
 
We will see how exchanges east and west led Chinese calligraphers to enliven an ancient art, and how Bay Area artist Ala Ebtekar explored the cosmos and the idea of time for a piece now on view on the museum’s newly opened East West Bank Art Terrace. After we travel to Central Asia, South Asia, the Himalayas, China, Korea, and Japan, our concluding lecture will feature the Barbara Bass Bakar Director & CEO of the Asian Art Museum, Dr. Jay Xu, speaking on the unique contribution and relationship between archeology and art. This lecture will have special significance to the spring special exhibition, Phoenix Kingdoms, exploring new discoveries of an ancient Chinese 3,000-year-old Bronze Culture.

Art will help us illuminate what one of our speakers, Arnold Chang, describes as “The Past is Always Present”.

Please refer to the schedule of Speaker & Topics below to ascertain the location of each lecture.

Speakers & Topics (Subject to Change)

Jan. 26, 2024

Medieval Central Asia in Depth: Archaeological Explorations and Mapping of Newly Discovered High Elevation Cities of the 6th-12th Centuries
  Study Guide Maps
Michael Frachetti, Professor of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis

Feb. 2, 2024
The Medieval Ghost City of Ani: A UNESCO World Heritage Site  Study Guide
Heghnar Watenpaugh, Professor of Art History, University of California, Davis


Feb. 9, 2024

Living Traditions: Architecture of Japan in a World Context  Study Guide
Ken Tadashi Oshima, Professor/Director of History Theory, Department of Architecture, University of Washington, Seattle
Book of Interest: Frank Lloyd Wright and the World, published by the Kajima Institute.

Feb. 16, 2024

Home is a Foreign Place: The Art of Zarina Hashmi  Study Guide
Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker, Professor Emerita, Department of Art and Art History, Mills College

Feb. 23, 2024
Japanese Aesthetics of Subversion: Basara, Wabi Sabi and Kabukimono
  Study Guide
Akiko Walley, Maude I. Kerns Associate Professor of Japanese Art, University of Oregon

Mar. 1, 2024 

The Past is Always Present  
Study Guide
Arnold Chang, Artist, Curator, and Art Historian


Mar. 8, 2024
Making the Desert Bloom: The Art, Architecture, and Archaeology of the Nabataeans Past and Present 
 Study Guide
Sarah Wenner, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Research Fellow, Cincinnati Art Museum  

Mar. 15, 2024

Reading the Future in Verse: The Art of Bibliomancy and the Book as Vessel to Move through Space and Time  Study Guide  Video on Luminous Ground
Ala Ebtekar, Artist and Lecturer, Stanford University


Mar. 22, 2024

Navayana: New Buddhist Art and Architecture in India
  Study Guide
Padma Dorje Maitland, Malavalli Family Foundation Associate Curator of the Art of the Indian Subcontinent, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco


Apr. 5, 2024
Wang Dongling and Calligraphic Practice in Contemporary Art  Study Guide
Julia Andrews, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Department of History of Art, The Ohio State University

Apr. 19, 2024 New Speaker!
Visualization Transformation: Tsherin Sherpa and Vajrayana Art in the 21st Century  Resources
Jeff Durham, Associate Curator of Himalayan Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Apr. 26, 2024 

Monkey Paintings of the Joseon Dynasty  Study Guide
Yoon-Jee Choi, Assistant Curator for Korean Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

May 31, 2024 New date!
Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendors of China’s Bronze Age  Study Guide
Dr. Jay Xu, The Barbara Bass Bakar Director & CEO, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

June 7, 2024 New date! The speaker will present this lecture on Zoom.
Reverberations (of Tradition)  No Study Guide for this lecture. Please visit the speaker's website for information.
Shahzia Sikander, Artist, Studio SS Sikander

Photo Credits:
Left: Past Continuous Tense (detail), 2011, by Lam Tung Pang (Chinese, b. 1978, active Hong Kong and Vancouver). Charcoal, image transfer, and acrylic on plywood. Acquisition made possible by the Kao/Williams Foundation. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Right: Landscape in the style of Ni Zan and Huang Gongwang, dated 1708, by Wang Yuanqi (Chinese, 1642–1715). Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Ink and colors on paper. Asian Art Museum, Museum purchase, B69D7. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Registered attendees of the lecture series are encouraged to attend in-person in Samsung Hall. Otherwise, registered attendees can attend via Zoom. Drop-ins for individual lectures are only available in-person in Samsung Hall on a space available basis. Drop-ins for individual lectures are not available on Zoom. The lecture series is organized as 14 separate Zoom webinars. A Zoom webinar confirmation email with information on how to join each week's webinar will be sent to all registered attendees 2 or 3 days before each lecture. Even though it is not required by Zoom, we recommend that you download and install Zoom on your computer or mobile device in advance, and set yourself up with a free account. Attendees will have a chance to participate in the Q&A via Zoom Q&A. Read Arts of Asia Zoom Webinar FAQs.