THE COURSE

Throughout this course, you will learn how Shanshui artists:
— Represent sites and absorb/record inspiration from an environment,
— Create works of art to express, explore, and question identity,
— Learn from tradition and reinterpret it in the contemporary context,
— Respond to their time’s social, cultural, and political issues through works of art.

Module 1: Introduction to the Method of Studying and Practicing Shanshui hua

Module 2: The Relationship between Subject-matter and Artist in the Wenren (Literati) Cultural Sphere

Module 3: Producing Artistic Expression from the Environment

THE COURSE

Throughout this course, we will discover:
— How Shanshui painting emerged as a form in the Chinese artistic context,
— Its genre’s evolution until the Yuan dynasty, and this evolutions relationship to social and historical changes,
— The primary cultural and philosophical influences,
— How cultural, intellectual, and religious elements become reflected in theoretical texts.

Module 1: The Cultural, Philosophical and Religious background of Shanshui hua

Module 2: Sui-Tang (6th-10th cent)

Module 3: Song (10th-13th cent)

Module 4: Yuan (13th-14th cent)

THE COURSE

Course Objectives/Questions to be Discussed:
— Why the term “landscape” is different than referring to Shanshui hua,
— Formal differences between landscape painting and Shanshui hua,
— Differences in Western and Chinese scholars’ approach in depicting or utilizing the natural environment.

Module 1: Cultural Development on the Relationship between Humans and the Natural Environment

Module 2: Limits of the Albertian Perspective on Depicting the Natural Environment

Module 3: Analysis of a Selection of Shanshui masterworks 

THE COURSE

Throughout this course we will discover:
— The evolution of hermit culture and its relationship to Shanshui hua,
— Important texts about the origins of hermit culture
— Texts of two early Chinese traditional artists, Zong Bing’s Hua shanshui xu 《画山水叙》(Introduction to Mountain and Water Painting), and Guo Xi’s Linquan gaozhi 《林泉高致》(Essay on Mountain and Water Painting), 
— The Works of Famous painters related to hermit culture.

Module 1: Origins of the Hermit culture in ancient China
Module 2: Hermit culture and the Emergence of the Genre of Mountain and Water Painting
Module 3: Hermit culture and Mountain and Water painting from Sui to Yuan Dynasties