Professor Katharine Burnett has published a new article on the
artist Wu Bin in the journal Word and Image. In “Mediated
meaning of a magnificent rock: using Wu Bin’s words to understand
his painting Ten Views of a Lingbi Rock,” Burnett
examines the late Ming Originalist artist Wu’s intentions through
an analysis of the artist’s inscriptions, colophons and similarly
commissioned painting On the Way to Shanyin.
Professor Talinn Grigor has been awarded a fellowship by The
Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University.
She will be a Visiting Fellow from January to April, 2027.
Professor Grigor will be working on her project Of
Hyphenated Architects which examines the role of hyphenated
and diasporic Armenian architects and artists in the global
circulation and connectivity of the Modern Movement.
Professor Talinn Grigor will participate in the
2026 Cultural History of Asian Art Conference at the
University of Hong Kong on June 24. Professor Grigor will
discuss “Postcards, Hotels, and Hospitable Minorities: Armenian
and Parsi Urbanity Networking a British Empire” for a panel
exploring urbanity.
Each year, UC Davis undergraduates in all academic fields are
invited to submit an abstract and participate in the Undergraduate Research,
Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference. This year,
art history was well represented with six majors
presenting research papers in Oral Session 2
on Saturday, April 25.
Flossie Chu, “Touch the Earth Lightly: Critical Regionalism,
Architectural Authorship and Cultural Mediation in Glenn
Murcutt’s Marika-Alderton House” (sponsored by Prof. Simon
Sadler)
Professors Talinn Grigor and co-author Houri
Berberian are the 2026 recipients of the Western Association
of Women Historians’ Barbara “Penny” Kanner Award
for excellence in the use of primary sources. The award
acknowledges the achievements of scholars whose books, book
chapters, articles, or published electronic media
illustrate the effective and impressive use of a specific
set of primary documents such as diaries, letters and oral
histories. Grigor and Berberian’s book
Professor Katharine Burnett recently attended the Global Tea
Conference at the University of Virginia where she participated
in the Tea and Material/Visual Culture session to discuss
“Teapots Shaped by Cultural Forces: 17th-Century Art Theory and
Innovative Yixing Teapot Design.”
Professor John Lopez’s new book
The Aquatic Metropolis: Urban Design and Environmental Change in
Tenochtitlan-Mexico City (Penn State University Press)
is a nuanced account of Mexico City’s urban development and Aztec
and Spanish attempts to control its most iconic feature–water.
The Aquatic Metropolis examines the complex
intersections of visual cultures and philosophical worldviews
about nature and cities and how the outcomes of these competing
visions impact the city’s future.
Professor Michael Yonan has contributed a chapter to a newly
published book that examines the human-centered focus of art
history and how modern art, visual culture, and modernity
itself emerge from relationships between humans and
animals. “Feline Creativity on the Eve of Modernity,”
co-authored with Amy Freund, is published in Animal
Modernities: Images, Objects, Histories, edited
by Daniel Harkett and Katie Hornstein (Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 2025).
Professor Heghnar Watenpaugh will present a public lecture at the
National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations
(INALCO) on Mar. 27 in Paris. Her talk on Survivor
Objects and Captive Sites: Art and Cultural Heritage in
Genocide will be the inaugural presentation for the
International Master’s Program in Armenian Studies (IMAS) for
which Watenpaugh is the 2025 IMAS Visiting Chair of
Excellence.
Professor Michael Yonan participated in a conference celebrating
the role of women in the development of the Museo del Prado
collection. “Key Women in the Creation of the Collections of the
Museo del Prado: Elisabeth Farnese” explored the roll of Queen
Elisabeth Farnese, the patron of the arts who most
decisively contributed to giving shape to the Museo del Prado’s
collections. This conference was the third edition of the
symposium series titled Key Women in the Creation of the
Collections of the Museo del Prado and was held on March 9 and
10.
Alum Vivian Li (B.A., art history ‘25) presented research
conducted while studying at UC Davis at the annual Association for Asian
Studies conference Poster Session. The conference was held in
Vancouver, B.C., Canada March 12-15, 2026. Li’s research
examined ”Cultural Coding of Color: A Comparative Study of
Eastern and Western Perspectives and Modern Applications.” Her
project was developed in coordination with Professor
Katharine Burnett.
A scandal at the Nanjing Museum involving a Ming masterpiece,
millions in laundered money and missing art donations recently
set off alarms in the art world. Correspondent Richard Spencer of
The Times (London) talked to Professor Katharine Burnett
about the inquiry and scandal in his article “The Chinese museum,
the Ming masterpiece and the missing millions.” Burnett
recently published a book on the collector Pang Yuanji
(Shaping Chinese Art History: Pang Yuanji and His Painting
Collection, 2020).
The Art of
Tea exhibit, on display in Shields Library’s Archives
and Special Collections Reading Room, celebrates the UC
Davis Global Tea Institute‘s 11th Annual Colloquium: “The Art of
Tea in Culture and Science, Society and Health.” Curated by M.A.
Professor Katharine Burnett, founding director of the Global Tea
Institute at UC Davis, will present a talk on ”The
Marvelously Extraordinary, Inventively Original Late Ming Teapot”
at the annual
Global Tea Institute Colloquium. Everybody knows what a
teapot looks like. Or do they? Actually, when did a teapot start
to look like a teapot? And why did they suddenly look so peculiar
in China’s late 16th century, and then later, elsewhere in the
world?
Professor Katharine Burnett was invited to speak
on “Branding GTI at the University of California, Davis,
Branding Japanese Green Tea to the US Market” at the World O-CHA
Tea Festival. The festival was held October 24, 2025” by the
Shizuoka Prefectural Government, Japan.
Following her talk, she was interviewed by iconic designer
Kashiwa Satō, Creative Director and CEO of SAMURAI, designer
for such brands as Uniqlo. Their conversation touched on ways to
brand Shizuoka green tea for the international market.
Professor Michael Yonan and Dr. Amy Freund (Kleinheinz Endowment
for the Arts and Education Endowed Chair in art history at
Southern Methodist University) gave a talk on Oct. 23 at the
Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA. “Visualizing the Feline in
Art” asked “what is it with cats and artists?” Yonan and Freund
examined the ubiquitousness of cats in depictions of
artists’ studios and in artworks that serve as manifestos of
their makers’ techniques of visual representation.
The Art and Art History Club is open to all art studio and art
history majors, minors, and friends. Our purpose is to learn
about and discuss all things relating to art and art history. We
do this through open discussions at meetings, going on field
trips to art museums and galleries, watching art-related movies,
selling student-made art, and promoting art education. We are
working hard to create an art community among UC Davis
undergraduates.
