Asian Art Research Articles

Depictions of Aging in a Self-Portrait by David Bailly (1584-1657).

I present a case involving a portrait of David Bailly, containing 2 images portraying changes over a period of ∼40 years, and I compare the facial features that illustrate the aging process. He was 67 years old when he painted "Self-Portraits With Vanitas Symbols" (1651). By juxtaposing past representations with present reality, the painting suggests that the young artist is contemplating his future aging. The young man, appearing so vividly within the painting's immediate reality, actually symbolizes a bygone era Compared with the young portrait, the older portrait exhibits a slightly drooped eyebrow tail, indicative of brow ptosis. In the young portrait, the lid margin is aligned with the upper border of the iris, whereas in the older portrait, it is aligned with the upper border of the pupil. The margin reflex distance 1 decreases with age. In addition, the older portrait shows baggy lower eyelids. The nasojugal groove is more pronounced, and the nasolabial fold is deeper. The beard and mustache are more extensive, and silver strands are interspersed among the black hairs. Presenting 2 images from a 40-year interval, the older portrait exhibits more pronounced signs of facial aging than the younger portrait. Portraits from that era, whether painted by western or eastern artists, demonstrate that the painters had an understanding of facial skin lines and the aging process. The process of creating portraits provides insights into historical contexts and remains significant in contemporary settings, particularly concerning perceptions and identity.

Expansion painting: a visual essay

ABSTRACT ‘Expansion Painting: A Visual Essay’ attempts another way of thinking about and through my practice of expansion painting through the form of a visual essay. In Asian art, images and words often come together as one. As can be seen in Chinese ink painting, images and words appear on the same visual plane, suggesting we look equally at both, seeing and reading both image and text. I aim to replicate this equal relationship between images and words in this paper as ‘another’ form of expansion painting. The image/text relationship also aims to reflect the viewers’ ambiguous relationship between their bodies and the work in the installations.

Memory, activism and the arts in Asia and the Pacific

Memory, activism and the arts in Asia and the Pacific

Transcultural negotiation of art and aesthetics: A study with reference to history of Kathakali in Calcutta

The article discusses the idea of transcultural negotiations focusing on the history of Kathakali institutions in Bengal. It elucidates the idea of institutions with diasporic identity, which resulted in the popularity of the art forms. The article establishes an idea that art forms are relocated to another place as a part of establishing a diasporic identity. It identifies three types of reinventions namely, syllabus-oriented, teaching-oriented and performance-oriented which are connected with Kathakali. These categories are described in detail through the opinion of various teachers, scholars and the artists. The article also describes the difficulties of the transcultural migration of the art forms and the detailed description of the institutions. The study also looks at the contribution of Asiatic Society of Bengal in bringing up a patronage for Asian arts.

Decoding decorative motifs: Visual perception and spatial understanding in Buddhist image houses

This study aims to investigate the impact of designs, coupled with the main pictorial program, on the perceptions of individuals within the organizational and spatial framework of a Buddhist image house. The study seeks to understand the influence of these designs on both the overarching artistic theme and the individuals experiencing them while considering the diverse roles inherent in this setting. Consequently, it elaborates on three different roles within this context of the research inquiry regarding the application of different styles alongside the main story theme in a Buddhist image house. In addressing the research question concerning the rationale behind incorporating decorative motifs alongside the main thematic narrative in a Buddhist image house, this study delineates three roles: supportive, objective, and subjective. It explores how these decorative motifs in the main pictorial program shape the perceptions of individuals and their subsequent effects. Emphasizing the multifaceted roles assumed by decorative motifs, this research contributes insights into the diverse functions served by these elements. The study posits that such variations not only serve as guides to religious practices but also offer a means of expressing the elevated creative qualities inherent in Asian art through the utilization of motifs.

Slow art plus: developing and piloting a single session art gallery-based intervention for mental health promotion via a mixed method waitlist randomized control trial.

The current study builds on the expertise of National Gallery Singapore and Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU) in developing and piloting an enhanced version of the Slow Art program, namely "Slow Art Plus" for mental health promotion. A single-site, open-label, waitlist Randomized Control Trial (RCT) design comprising of a treatment group and waitlist control group was adopted (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05803226). Participants (N = 196) completed three online questionnaires at three timepoints: baseline [T1], immediately post-intervention/s baseline [T2], post-intervention follow-up/immediately post-intervention [T3]. Qualitative focus groups were conducted to evaluate program acceptability. A mixed model ANOVA was performed to understand intervention effectiveness between the immediate intervention group and waitlist control group. The analyses revealed a significant interaction effect where intervention group participants reported an improvement in spiritual well-being (p = 0.001), describing their thoughts and experiences (p = 0.02), and nonreacting to inner experiences (p = 0.01) immediately after Slow Art Plus as compared to the control group. Additionally, one-way repeated measure ANOVAs were conducted for the intervention group to evaluate maintenance effects of the intervention. The analyses indicated significant improvements in perceived stress (p < 0.001), mindfulness (p < 0.001) as well as multiple mindfulness subscales, active engagement with the world (p = 0.003), and self-compassion (p = 0.02) 1 day after the completion of Slow Art Plus. Results from framework analysis of focus group data revealed a total of two themes (1: Experiences of Slow Art Plus, 2: Insights to Effective Implementation) and six subthemes (1a: Peaceful relaxation, 1b: Self-Compassion, 1c: Widened Perspective, 2a: Valuable Components, 2b: Execution Requisites, 2c: Suggested Enhancements), providing valuable insights to the overall experience and implementation of the intervention. Slow Art Plus represents a unique approach, offering a standardized, multimodal, single-session program that integrates mindfulness and self-compassion practices, as well as reflective and creative expressions with Southeast Asian art. It demonstrates potential in meeting the mental health needs of a wide range of individuals and could be readily incorporated into social prescribing initiatives for diverse populations.

Dialogue on Artistic Expression: A Study of Oriental Elements in 19th-Century Impressionism

As one of the most significant art movements in the 19th century, Impressionism broke down conventional boundaries, laying the foundation for today’s artistic styles to flourish. This paper aims to explore the integration of Oriental elements of Impressionism and to reveal the influence of cultural exchange on art movements. The introduction section provides a comprehensive overview of Impressionism, focusing on the research goals that revolve around Oriental aspects. The paper utilises an exhaustive approach, including a literature review, artwork analysis, and examination of historical records, ensuring a thorough exploration of Oriental influences. The structure of this paper acts as a guide for readers, highlighting unique contributions such as exploring little-known Eastern elements and interpreting artworks from new perspectives. By deeply studying the historical background of Impressionism, this paper discusses the interests in Eastern art and its influences on the Western art movement in the 19th century, examines the channels of cultural exchange, and analyses the reception of Oriental elements through case studies. At the same time, the influences of oriental traditions and elements such as brushwork, composition, and calligraphy on the natural depiction, colour application, daily life, symbolism, and character representation of Impressionist paintings are also discussed. In conclusion, this paper summarises the key findings and contributions and emphasises the importance of Oriental elements in Impressionist art.

El Whispering Clouds, Echoing Mountains: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Gonzalo Ariza’s Lyrical Landscapes

This essay reevaluates the art of Gonzalo Ariza, a twentieth-century Colombian painter renowned for landscapes that merge Eastern and Western traditions. Challenging simplistic categorizations of his oeuvre as an “appropriated Japanese style,” my research argues that Ariza’s vision of landscape transformed into a contemplative attitude towards local Andean highlands after his return from Japan in 1938. It contextualizes the challenges Ariza faced when drawing inspiration from East Asian art amidst mid-twentieth-century modernist currents and political circumstances, shedding light on the critical narratives that marginalized his work and unraveling the complexities of Colombian modernism within a global art discourse. Building upon Warburg's concept of dynamograms to describe “pathos formula” in landscapes, this study argues that Ariza’s work transcends cultural boundaries, which links both traditions through the subtle emotions evoked by cloud-shrouded mountains, eliciting a universal appreciation for nature’s mystical splendor. Through cross-cultural comparison and an ecocritical lens, my essay delves into the interplay of transcultural exchange, nationalist identity, andrepresentations of nature in Ariza’s artworks, revealing his nostalgic proto-environmental consciousness. In doing so, it raises raising questions about the transformative power of landscape art to reflect and influence societal values and perspectives on nature within contemporary dialogues on environmental stewardship and the negotiation of cultural identity through art.

Xu Bing's The Character of Characters and the Possibilities of Calligraphic Animation

This article examines contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing's (b. 1955) 2012 animation video, The Character of Characters, which remediates Zhao Mengfu's (1254–1322) calligraphy and painting. The video, in which Chinese written words become the true protagonists, was originally a commissioned installation presented at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco from October 2012 to January 2013. The article aims to model a form of extremely close analysis of new media art, which borrows vocabulary and methodologies from both art history and media studies. While making a timely contribution to Xu Bing scholarship by focusing on an understudied work in his oeuvre, it also adds new lines of inquiry: first, with regard to text-image reciprocity, which continues to be a focal point in studies of contemporary Chinese art; and second, with regard to animation-calligraphy reciprocity, which begs more critical attention. The Character of Characters, I argue, invokes a double vision that sees words on screen simultaneously as linguistic texts and pictorial shapes, a vision through which and because of which the activities of looking and reading are combined into one.

3D MODELLING AND VIRTUAL REALITY FOR MUSEUM HERITAGE PRESENTATION: CONTEXTUALISATION OF SCULPTURE FROM THE TANG ERA

Abstract. The present research concerns the contextualisation and presentation of eleven small statues from the Tang era dated from the XI and XII centuries CE today housed at the Asian Art Museum in Turin (MAO). A multidisciplinary group with expertise in Asian art, digital representation, and information processing systems, with the support of VR@POLITO and MOD Lab Arch of the Politecnico di Torino is involved in the work. The goal is to present together several Tang-era pottery models not belonging to the same funerary outfit within the spaces of a coeval, philologically compatible hypogeal tomb. With a pronounced storytelling intent, the reconstructive 3D model represents a virtual exhibition project summarizing Tang art’s architectural, pictorial, and sculptural features. The pipeline was developed through photogrammetric acquisition with Structure from Motion (SfM) technology and 3D modeling of the artworks, reconstructive modeling and texturing of a Tang tomb as the ideal space of the statues, and communication through a virtual reality (VR) experience augmented with a set of information.

The Shaping of Malaysian Abstract Expressionist Art within the Context of Malaysian Modern Art (1950s-1970s)

Abstract Expressionism is an art form that began in the West and later gained influence in the East. In the years after World War II, Abstract Expressionism became the catalyst in the transition of modern art in Asia. In Malaysia, with the advocacy of Abstract Expressionism and the spirit of Expressionism, abstract art became mainstream in the art scene since the 1950s. Abstract Expressionism from two different worlds—America and/or Europe and Malaysia—is different, especially in terms of the artists’ respective approach and creativity. This article discusses how the evolution of abstraction works through the artworks produced by Syed Ahmad Jamal, Yeoh Jin Leng, Latiff Mohidin, and Chew Teng Beng. This is followed by a discussion on the diversity of abstraction forms in Malaysian Abstract Expressionist art through the study of works by the aforementioned artists

Appreciation and Dissemination of Chinese Paintings from a Cross-cultural Perspective Based on Information Diffusion Modeling

Abstract With a long history, profound cultural deposits, and diversified art types, Chinese painting is both an important part of traditional Chinese culture and a typical representative of traditional oriental art and culture. This article starts with the spirit of Chinese painting and aesthetic appreciation and then explores the significance of Chinese painting’s foreign dissemination and dissemination path. For the appreciation of Chinese paintings, the article designs an index system for assessing the appreciation ability of Chinese paintings, solves the weights of the indexes by using the optimal assignment method of distance estimation, and constructs a model for assessing the appreciation ability of Chinese paintings by combining with the cloud model. The Hidden Markov Model is used to establish an information diffusion model for Chinese painting dissemination, and the parameters of the model are estimated using the Great Likelihood Method. The quantitative analyses of Chinese painting appreciation ability, information diffusion effect, and satisfaction with communication effect were carried out with students from University S as the research subjects. The main factor of Chinese painting appreciation ability is emotional ability, which has a weight share of 26.74%. The comprehensive assessment cloud eigenvalue is (3.4714, 0.1462, 0.0348), which shows that the appreciation ability is good. When the state transfer probability is raised from 0.3 to 0.9, the increase in the number of Chinese painting communication nodes in 25s is 93.59%, and the satisfaction index of the audience for the communication effect of Chinese painting is 3.899. Combining with the information diffusion model, we can understand the change of communication nodes in Chinese paintings, which can provide a guide to enhance the communication effect of Chinese paintings.

IRANIAN ART OF THE QAJAR ERA: EUROPEAN INFLUENCES AND «PERSIAN STYLE» FOR EXPORT

The Qajar era (late XVIII-1925) gave the world a unique style, unmistakably recognizable in painting, crafts, and photography. Clumsy, striking the imagination with its amazing brightness of colors and bold artistic techniques, it was formed largely due to active interaction with European culture via respect for the Persian traditional styles. The article deals with the significance of Europe and the European in the formation and development of Qajar art, addressing two opposing processes. Borrowing Western methods and techniques, educational models and new products on the one hand, and European fashion for Persian things, which influenced local production and its transformation on the other. The first process is seen in easel painting and the fashion for "european«details in interior decoration, the second — in «re-creation» of an updated carpet and ceramic production in Persia. The illustrative effect will be provided by selected items from the collection of the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, including court portraits, glass paintings, qalamkaras, tiles, etc.

Research on the New Era Aesthetic Transformation of Traditional Chinese Arts and Crafts: The Cases Focusing on Glass Art

Traditional craftsmanship maps out the Chinese philosophy of creation, but it has suffered during the rapid transformation of the aesthetic of industrialised, urbanised modernity. Glass art has a long history in China, but for a long time it has not been able to integrate deeply with science, but has existed as an imitation or substitute for nearby materials, so the several changes in glass art are closely linked to the entry of Western art into the Chinese art world, which is why it is defined as 'imported'. After the initial imitation of Western glass art, modern China has come to recognise the importance of its own cultural identity, which is at the heart of Eastern art's standing on the world stage and its dialogue with the world.

The art of specimen orientation: Two-dimensional maps for oropharynx squamous cell carcinoma.

The goal of surgical treatment for oropharynx squamous cell carcinoma (SCCa) is resection to negative margins. Current methods of orienting resection specimens often do not give a comprehensive view, especially in oropharynx SCCa where specimens can lack anatomic landmarks. We created standardized two-dimensional maps of oropharynx anatomy drawn to scale to improve communication between surgeons and pathologists. Notes regarding surgery including anatomic landmarks, areas of concern, additional margins, and relevant clinical information were added to the map. The maps guided pathology work-up, and the pathologist could communicate details back to the surgeon on how the specimen was sectioned or locations of microscopic foci to direct future treatment and clinical monitoring. The use of two-dimensional maps for oropharynx SCCa specimens offers a standardized solution to address the challenges of anatomic orientation. These maps summarized key pathological information, preserved clinical details from the specimens, and guided multidisciplinary conferences when planning adjuvant treatment.

Orient Assemblage (Made in Austria): Colonial Typologies, Trade Relations, and the Politics of Architecture at the Vienna World’s Fair 1873

In contrast to the Great Exhibition in Paris in 1867 and in London in 1862, both of which were directed towards the portrayal of scientific and technological innovations, the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair exhibition concept concentrated on trade relations. One of the most prestigious sections of the exhibition grounds was the Oriental Quarter, which featured numerous collections of oriental art, marking the climax of a prevailing late 19th-century trend. This nexus of colonial and economic interests becomes legible not only in the specific ways the Orient was represented in the larger organization of the fair but also in Josef von Schwegel’s curatorial program, through which the designs of the orientalist buildings were developed, realized, and presented to visitors. In this context, we understand the European representation of the Orient to be a social construction that relies on architectural terms and practice, and we identify a new spatial type that offered visitors an experience of the Orient by enacting alleged oriental forms of architecture. The architectural enactments of the Oriental Quarter perform two main functions: first, to foster trade relationships with the Orient and second, to put on display the Austrian monarchy’s own industrial performance and artistic production. As a ‘living museum’, the Vienna World’s Fair marked the beginning of the monarchy’s complex collection history of oriental exhibits through which it continued to appropriate oriental forms for commerce-related reasons long after the fair officially closed.

Who does the story belong to? The politics of power in collaborative performance

In this article, I interrogate my work Encounters with Dr Yashoda Thakore and her guru Annabattula Mangatayaru who are from the kalavantulu community (a marginalized, banned and ostracized dance community) based in Hyderabad and Mummidivaram in Andhra and our historic collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). Two extremes it would seem bridged together by the work I was doing with our platform/festival Sangam, created to provide representation for marginalized, under-represented and racialized South Asian artists in Melbourne, Victoria. Based on my research that spans fifteen years, the Encounters performance reveals the story of five South Indian dancers (known as devadasi/kalavantulu) and three musicians who toured to Paris in 1838, at a time when India was colonized by France. One significant encounter occurred in Paris when a teenaged dancer called Ammany and the rest of the troupe met several composers in Vienna including Johann Strauss I and Joseph Lanner. The MSO had been playing some pieces from this encounter (Indianner Galopp and Malapou Galopp) not aware of its historic intercultural significance. Yashoda and her guru were also performing fragments of their repertoire descended from Ammany not aware of this connection. My research forms the third part of this puzzle; of knowing only fragments until all of us came together. Each of us contributed to the anti-colonial experimental piece that was created, but whose story was this? Who had the rights to perform this story? To engage in this question, I explore the idea of cultural property and intellectual property (IP) rights, licensing and copyright agreements to embark upon a moral and ethical framework not used usually in Australian–Indian performance praxis. I draw from my work with BlakDance and its First Nations IP process to question and interrogate the complexities of sharing stories, the politics of making intercultural work in Australia and examine who profits from this process whether it is economic, symbolic, political or via cultural capital and propose a cultural IP framework for the global majority in Australia.

Artistic Intervention as Scene Construction/Deconstruction: An Analysis of the Display of the Kangxi Throne in the Humboldt Forum in the Context of the Cross-Cultural Exhibition

Based on the research perspective of cross-cultural exhibition analysis, this paper takes case study as the fundamental methodology under the framework of museology and art history research in order to analyse the new display of the Kangxi throne and its screen, which were lost overseas from China during the war years and have been transferred from the Museum of Asian Art in Dahlem to the Humboldt Forum, which is deeply involved in the controversy of its colonial history. This study primarily focuses on the situational methods in which the exhibits were connected to the public under artistic intervention. In the exploratory stage, the &amp;ldquo;Game of Thrones&amp;rdquo; project in the Humboldt Lab Dahlem programme offered multiple versions of interpretations, which ultimately prompted the museum to change the scene restoration plan and invite the famous Chinese architect Wang Shu to complete the rooftop installation. Between construction and deconstruction, the artwork&amp;rsquo;s scenic intervention creates structural descriptions for the presentation of cross-cultural differences, and accommodates ethical conflicts from different sides with its poetic, distanced interpretations, while providing a shared language for comprehending the various facets of nationhood amidst the intersection of history and the present.

Haunted Images: Unsettling History and Traumatic Memory in Tintin Wulia's Artmaking

Taking as a point of departure the practice of Chinese-Indonesian Australian artist Tintin Wulia (1972–), the article investigates possibilities for social critique offered by the photographic image as it is co-opted by artists working in post-Reformasi Indonesia. Building on scholarship that aspires toward a more historically informed understanding of contemporary Southeast Asian art, the article connects Wulia's reworkings of photographs to a longer history of image making. This focus on the entanglement of the contemporary and the historical is sustained throughout an analysis of three works by Wulia—Ketok (2002), Invasion (2012), and Great Wallpaper (2012). In highlighting the ways in which Wulia's artmaking responds to, mirrors, and troubles broader structures of seeing, documentation, and representation that have shaped national identity, the article suggests that the reanimation and reproduction of family and identification photographs unsettle forgotten and suppressed histories of trauma unique to the experience of the Chinese ethnic minority in Indonesia.

The Offering of Begging Bowls by the Four Lokapālas: Its Literary and Visual Representations in South Asia

Abstract This research paper aims to analyze a selection of visual representations regarding the offering of begging bowls to the Buddha by the four Lokapālas and their relationship to literary sources in South Asian art and discuss the significance of the story. This article reveals that these representations have always been popular in Gandhāra. The important components of this story relevant to the depictions include (1) the tree where the Buddha sat, (2) offering of the four bowls, (3) merging of the bowls, (4) presence of the two merchants, and (5) presence of other deities. However, a close one-to-one text-image relationship cannot be established due to multiple variants. The story is significant in emphasizing certain important Buddhist concepts, such as, the “transcendental virtue” of the Buddha as a supreme deity and a universal monarch (cakravartin); donative practice; usage of the bowl according to the Vinaya (Discipline), and the veneration of bowls.