Art Trade And Cultural Mediation In Asia 1600 1950

This Palgrave Pivot explores the social and cultural impact of global trade at a micro-level from around 1600 to 1950. Bringing together the collaborative skills of cultural, social, economic, and art historians, it examines how the diffusion of trade, goods and objects affected people’s everyday lives. The authors tell several stories: of the role played by a host of intermediaries – such as apothecaries, artisans and missionaries who facilitated the process; of objects such as Japanese export lacquer-ware and paintings; of how diverse artistic influences came to be expressed in colonial church architecture in the Philippines; of revolutionary changes wrought on quotidian tastes and preferences, as shown in the interior decoration of private homes in the Dutch East Indies; and of transformations in the smoking and drinking habits of Southeast Asians. The chapters consider the conditions from which emerged new forms of artistic production and transfer, fresh cultural interpretations, and expanded markets for goods, objects and images.

This Palgrave Pivot explores the social and cultural impact of global trade at a micro-level from around 1600 to 1950. Bringing together the collaborative skills of cultural, social, economic, and art historians, it examines how the diffusion of trade, goods and objects affected people’s everyday lives. The authors tell several stories: of the role played by a host of intermediaries – such as apothecaries, artisans and missionaries who facilitated the process; of objects such as Japanese export lacquer-ware and paintings; of how diverse artistic influences came to be expressed in colonial church architecture in the Philippines; of revolutionary changes wrought on quotidian tastes and preferences, as shown in the interior decoration of private homes in the Dutch East Indies; and of transformations in the smoking and drinking habits of Southeast Asians. The chapters consider the conditions from which emerged new forms of artistic production and transfer, fresh cultural interpretations, and expanded markets for goods, objects and images.

"The early years of the seventeenth century saw a great flourishing of Dutch culture. In the arts, this was the era of Vermeer and Rembrandt, as well as the development of a local art market. Commerce extended around the world, with state-sponsored trading companies importing foreign goods. Politically, the Netherlands became the first nation-state in Europe, in 1648. In this book, Claudia Swan considers all these aspects together, examining the material culture of the period-the designed, manufactured, and hand-crafted materials and wares-to show how the Dutch encounter with so-called "exotic" goods played a fundamental role in the country's political formation"--

The European expansion to Asia was driven by the desire for spices and Asian luxury products. Its results, however, exceeded the mere exchange of commodities and precious metals. The meeting of Asia and Europe signaled not only the beginnings of a global market but also a change in taste and lifestyle that influences our lives even today. Manifold kinds of cultural transfers evolved within a market framework that was not just confined to intercontinental and intra-Asiatic trade. In Europe and Asia markets for specific cultural products emerged and the transfers of objects affected domestic arts and craft production. Traditionally, relations between Europe and Asia have been studied in a hegemonic perspective, with Europe as the dominant political and economic centre. Even with respect to cultural exchange, the model of diffusion regarded Europe as the centre, and Asia the recipient, whereby Asian objects in Europe became exotica in the Kunst- und Wunderkammern. Conceptions of Europe and Asia as two monolithic regions emerged in this context. However, with the current process of globalization these constructions and the underlying models of cultural exchange have come under scrutiny. For this reason, the book focuses on cultural exchange between different European and Asian civilizations, whereby the reciprocal complexities of cultural transfers are at the centre of observation. By investigating art markets, workshops and collections in Europe and Asia the contributors exemplify the varieties of cultural exchange. The book examines the changing roles of Asian objects in European material culture and collections and puts a special emphasis on the reception of European visual arts in colonial settlements in Asia as well as in different Asian societies.

While the socio-economic and historical aspects of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) have been extensively documented and researched, the role of the VOC in visual culture and the arts has been relatively neglected. This authoritative volume addresses various aspects of cultural exchange between the Low Countries and Asia. Increased prosperity and the flood of imported goods from Asia had a huge influence on seventeenth-century Holland. To cite some examples: when the VOC spread its merchandise throughout the various regions of Asia, Chinese decorative motives became popular in Indonesia. After the lifting of the seventeenth-century ban on the import of Christian books to Japan, a wave of interest in Dutch culture hit the country, giving rise to Hollandmania, imitation of anything Dutch. 'Mediating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia' offers new insights into the world routes travelled by seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture, as well as the rise of Asian influence in the imagery of the Dutch Golden Age.

The volume comprises papers presented at an international symposium on 'Transmissions and Transformations: Learning through the Arts in Asia' organized by the IIC-Asia Project. The essays, by educationists from different Asian countries, highlight the diverse as also the distinctive ways of transmitting knowledge through the arts and the crafts. The essays are a significant contribution to the recent focus on evolving alternative pedagogical tools in the formal and non-formal systems of education. The international symposium, held in 2005, gathered on one platform people from different parts of Asia -- Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Australia, besides India -- to explore the Asian methodologies of transmission of knowledge. The participants shared the fund of their experience on innovative projects to use the arts as a tool in the educational system for sensitizing the younger generation towards their cultural heritage. The conference stressed the need for identifying the characteristic features of the numerous strategies for transmitting information, knowledge and techniques that existed in the Asian continent, not only through the written word but also through the oral, the visual and the performative mediums. The IIC-Asia Project was launched in 1997. In the first phase, seminars were organized, each focusing on a particular region of Asia and covering its social, economic and political dimensions. In the second phase, a thematic approach was adopted. A number of themes were thus covered: India and Asia: Aesthetic Discourses; Transmissions and Transformations: Learning through the Arts in Asia; Embroidery in Asia: Sui-Dhaga; Crossing Boundaries through Needle and Thread; and Culture of Indigo: Exploring the Asian Panorama - Plant, Product, Power. The IIC-Asia Project has also compiled an anthology of Asian Women's Writing. Four festivals of documentary films made by Asian women filmmakers were also organized.

The Denver Art Museum held a symposium in 2006 to examine a little-known aspect of globalization in the early modern era. Specialists in the arts and history of Asia and Latin America came from Europe, Asia, and the Americas to present recent research on connections between the two areas. Edited by Denver Art Museum curators Donna Pierce and Ronald Otsuka, this volume presents revised and expanded versions of the papers presented at the symposium. Gustavo Curiel opens the volume with a discussion of the reception and re-interpretation of Asian motifs in the various art forms of viceregal New Spain (Mex-ico). Essays by Etsuko Rodríguez and George Kuwayama present detailed analyses of Chinese porcelains excavated in Mexico and Peru that were imported via the Manila galleon trade. Roxanna Brown uses new evidence from shipwrecks in Southeast Asia to document the China-Manila branch of the trade network. Jorge Rivas looks at colonial furniture made in northern South America using Asian-inspired techniques and motifs. Sofía Sanabrais describes the adaptation of the Asian folding screen by Mexican artists. Meiko Nagashima addresses the exportation of Japanese lacquer traditions to Spanish America and Spain. Sonia Ocaña analyzes Japanese-inspired elements in shell-inlaid frames made in Mexico. Marjorie Trusted investigates the relationship to Asian models of Baroque ivory sculptures produced in the Americas; Abby Sue Fisher investigates the impact of Asian trade textiles on clothing in viceregal Mexico; and Clara Bargellini documents Asian trade goods at the missions of northern Mexico. An interdisciplinary study bringing together scholars from two fields of art and addressing a variety of artistic media, this beautifully illustrated volume will be an important resource for scholars and enthusiasts of Asian and Latin American art and history.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Art Markets, Agents and Collectors brings together a wide variety of case studies, based on letters and detailed archival research, which nuance the history of the art market and the role of the collector within it. Using diaries, account books and other archival sources, the contributions to this volume show how agents set up networks and acquired works of art, often developing the taste and knowledge of the collectors for whom they were working. They are therefore seen as important actors in the market, having a specific role that separates them from auctioneers, dealers, museum curators or amateurs, while at the same time acknowledging and analyzing the dual positions that many held. Each chronological period is introduced by a contextual essay, written by a leading expert in the field, which sets out the art market in the period concerned and the ways in which agents functioned. This book is an invaluable tool for those needing a broader introduction to the intricate workings of the art market.