Call for Applications

The Getty Foundation — “Connecting Art Histories” — Program

Entangled Modernisms: Chinese Artists Trained in Europe
(Ethnographic Eye, Phase II)
Deadline - August 31, 2016

In the second phase of the “Ethnographic Eye” initiative, our focus will turn to a major cornerstone of Sino-modernity in the 19th and 20th centuries—namely the artistic education that prominent Chinese artists received in Europe before they returned to China during the war. For several decades before the mid-1930s, artists moved first to Japan for artistic training in European techniques, and then to Europe itself, populating the art schools in major cities. This pursuit of art education beyond China’s shores occurred in several waves. Phase II of our project will look at the formation of Chinese artists in the oil painting idiom, which would become a critical skill-set for modern Chinese art. We will consider closely the circumstances of Chinese artists’ study environments, including the teachers under which they trained, the curricula at the art schools where they enrolled, and the types of European painting and sculpture that were popular among Chinese students in art capitals such as Paris, London, Brussels, and Berlin (in addition to other smaller, but key cities such as Lyon, Dijon, and Glasgow) from 1915-1937, and how this formative period impacted art training after their return to China.
The “Ethnographic Eye” initiative as a whole is designed to be an international cooperation in which art history scholars and students from different institutions, including museums, have the opportunity to work together across borders. Phase II will give students and professors from China, Europe, and the United States an opportunity to connect their expertise, resources, and methods of art historical reflection as they travel together to sites in Europe where key technical and artistic foundations of Sino-modernity were established through the travel and training of Chinese artists. Two group research trips and a conference are planned for 2017-18.

Application procedure and deadline:

Graduate students eligible for application shall have expertise in the Republican period and must be able to participate in the full two-year span of the project. To apply we request that you complete the following steps:
In addition to your c.v., please complete and submit the application form: (http://www.zo.uni-heidelberg.de/iko/ethnographiceye/index.html)

Provide information regarding your academic training, research interests and future focus, in addition to outlining the direction of your research during the course of the project (max. 3 pages, font size 12). For details, please refer to the application form.

Provide a list of relevant art history courses taken.

Demonstrate sufficient skills for communication in English and Chinese (please add GRE / TOEFL / IELTS [level 6.5-7 or comparable])
Please submit application in one combined pdf (form, research statement, and language test scores) via email to: application-ethnographic-eyezo.uni-heidelberg.de
*We regret that late applications cannot be considered.

If you have questions about the application or difficulties with the application submission, please contact us at: ethnographic_eyezo.uni-heidelberg.de or muyu.zhoustud.uni-heidelberg.de

Selection Procedure:
Your application will be reviewed by Prof. Sarah E. Fraser (Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University), Prof. Cao Qinghui (CAFA, Beijing), Prof. Judy Andrews (Ohio State University), and Prof. SHEN Kuiyi (University of California, San Diego).
Application deadline: August 31, 2016
Review of applications: September 2016
Selection and Publication of results: October 2016