Art 101: A Global Adventure

“Painting as Metaphor: The Unique Aspects of Chinese Traditional Painting” presented by Li-ling Hsiao, PhD, associate professor of Chinese language and literature at the UNC Chapel Hill.

Learn how Chinese traditional paintings are pictorial poetry that interact with the poetic inscription on the painting and how paintings present music.

Additional reading:

Picturing Guqin Music: Min Qiji’s and Other’s Illustrations of ‘Yingying Listens to Qin’ for Xixiang Ji
Wang Wei and Su Shi’s Conceptions of “Painting within Poetry”

“Born from the Stone: Art, Empire, and Cosmos in Mexico-Tenochtitlan” presented by Eduardo Douglas, PhD, associate professor of art at UNC Chapel Hill.

An introduction to the art, culture, and history of the Triple Alliance Empire, commonly known as the Aztec Empire, of Late-Postclassic Period (ca. 1200-1521 CE) central Mexico. Through the analysis of a few major artworks from Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the imperial capital, the talk will address key aspects of the worldview and experience of the artists who created and the patrons who commissioned these objects.

Additional reading:

Aztec article from Grove Dictionary

“Earthworks as Indigenous Art” presented by Chadwick Allen, professor of English and adjunct professor of American Indian studies at the University of Washington

Building from his recently published book “Earthworks Rising: Mound Building in Native Literature and Arts,” Chadwick Allen explores the aesthetic, material, and social functions of indigenous mounds, embankments, and other earthworks. Although dominant accounts often represent these diverse structures as unsolved “mysteries” or ruins of a “savage” past, Allen demonstrates the sophistication and beauty of earthworks designs and reveals the ways earthworks principles continue to develop in contemporary Indigenous works.

Additional reading:

“The Newark Earthworks”
“Embodied Tribalology: Mound Building, Ball Games, and Native Endurance in the Southeast”

Lecture 1: “Did everyone have a Renaissance” presented by Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum

This lecture will look at how the Renaissance took shape—and took different shapes—in various parts of Europe, with a focus on Italy.

Lecture 2: “The Baroque and its Trailblazing Women Artists” presented by Trinity Martinez, PhD, visiting professor of art at Davidson College.

This lecture will begin with a brief overview of the religious and political turmoil encompassing 17th-century western Europe, and how these issues influenced artistic trends spanning various geographies. Emphasis will be placed on women artists, namely Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, and Judith Leyster.

Additional reading:

“A Fuller Picture of Artemisia Gentileschi”
“Baroque Rome”

“Brass, Glass, and Terracotta: Classic Ile-Ife in the History of Yoruba Civilization” presented by Akinwumi Ogundiran, PhD, UNC Charlotte Chancellor’s Professor, and professor of Africana studies, anthropology, and history.

Learn about how the political leaders, intellectuals, scientists, and artists of Ile-Ife, an ancient city in west Africa, used innovations in metalworking, glassmaking, terracotta, and sophisticated statecraft to create a cosmopolitan city that gave shape to the Yoruba civilization and its enduring global legacies.

Additional reading:

“Art in Ancient Ife, Birthplace of the Yoruba”

“Magic and Medicine in Medieval Islamic Material Culture”

Introducing key developments in Islamic visual and material culture between the tenth and late fourteenth centuries, this talk will explore the emergence of new media and iconographies intended to assure personal protection and good health. These artworks allow us to access otherwise elusive understanding of the relationship between magic, science, and religion in the medieval Islamic world.

Additional reading:

Amulets and Talismans from the Islamic World