China exported immense quantities of art across the globe in the early modern era, which made Chinese art highly influential in international design trends. The 2024 Templeton Colloquium in Art History will explore the influence of Chinese art and aesthetics on European and East Asian societies.  Chinese art brought cultures into contact with each other, created increased awareness of geographically distant societies, and shaped modern tastes in art.

The 2024 Templeton Colloquium in Art History will be held at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on Feb. 23 at 4 p.m. with a reception to follow.   

Speakers

Tamara Bentley, professor of art history at Colorado College. Her book on the 17th century Chinese painter and printmaker Chen Hongshou — The Figurative Works of Chen Hongshou (1599 [sic]-1652): Authentic Voices/Expanding Markets — was published by Ashgate in 2012. She was editor-in-chief and chapter author for Picturing Commerce in the East Asian Maritime Circuits, 1550-1800, published by Amsterdam University Press in 2019.

Bentley’s talk is titled “Thinking Globally, 1660-1770: The impact of Chinese Visual Commodities on French and British Material Culture.”

Katharine Burnett, professor of art history at the University of California, Davis. Her most recent book is Shaping Chinese Art History: Pang Yuanji and His Painting Collection (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2020).

Burnett’s will discuss “Art History without the Art: The Curious Case of Sino-Vietnamese Teapots before 1700.” 

Organized by Michael Yonan, professor of art history and Alan Templeton Endowed Chair in the History of European Art, 1600–1830, UC Davis. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

The colloquium is made possible through an endowment established by Alan Templeton (B.A., art history and psychology, ‘82).

Media contact: Michael Yonan, professor of art history, UC Davis