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COURSES SPRING 2009

Histart 190A

BUDDHIST IMAGES IN THE MODERN/POSTMODERN WORLD (4 units) Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-2 103 Moffitt, CCN: 05541 Gregory Levine

This course will explore the visual forms, places, and powers of Buddhist imagery in diverse situations and communities of the Modern and Postmodern world (in Asia, the West, and trans-national contexts). Images of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and meditating monks abound in art history courses, museum galleries, and popular culture.  They defy easy categorization (are they living images of the divine, museum treasures, metaphors for meditation and Asian culture, marketing devices, or all of the above)? At the very least, they provoke a  number of questions: How have traditional understandings of Buddhist icons and iconographies adjusted to or resisted new contexts and communities of reception in the modern world; how have ancient icons consecrated in sacred sites in Asia come to be re-situated into museums; what does seeing an image of the Buddha mean today in our increasingly virtual culture; and how have Buddhist images fared under colonialism and amid global capitalism and international geopolitical conflict? (As)

Letters in bold following individual upper division course descriptions cite the History of Art major breadth requirement fulfilled by the course. (As=Asian, An=Ancient, Me=Medieval, R=Renaissance, B=Baroque, Mo=Modern)

 

 

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