Is This Asian Art? Marginalized Asian Art and Asian Art Beyond the
Usual Fare

The study of Asian art in most American universities presents an
atrophied Asia. Asia, as described by the Association of Asian
Studies, comprises over 65% of the world's population, but the arts of
many of these peoples are rarely exhibited or taught in North America.

Early collections and subsequent publications based on this
art--primarily Chinese with Indian and Japanese in a distant second
place--created a canon of Asian art in the U.S. Given that most
art historians were educated in this canon, universities continue to
perpetuate it, which has resulted in a fictitious hierarchy of Asian
art, false notions about the unimportance of traditional media
(textiles, ornament, personal adornments, etc.), and remarkably large
art historical fissures in the complexities of Asian visual culture.

This panel will present a forum for new visions of Asia and the visual
cultures found in the imagined peripheries of this region. Papers
should address marginalized media, trans-regional studies, emerging
artists, or other fresh art historical discourse in regards to Asian
art history/histories and trends in non-canonical Asia.

Please send a one-page proposal by May 15 to Mary-Louise Totton at
mltottonwmich.edu

or mail to:
M-L Totton, Asst. Professor of Art History, 1425 Sangren Hall,
School of Art, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5213

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