Development of Modern Art in Tibet

Please join us for a lecture with:

Tsewang Tashi, Professor, Tibet University, Lhasa, PRC

This talk is mainly drawn from Tsewang Tashi’s recently published book A History of Art in Twentieth Century Tibet, for which he has done over ten years of fieldwork in different art sites and institutions home and abroad, including museums, monasteries, workshops and so on. We will start with a review of existing scholarship on modern art of Tibet and discuss the development of modern art in Tibet. Through an introduction of Gedun Choepel, a scholar and non-traditional artist in Tibet and his student Amdo Jampa, whose works are considered landmarks of early Tibetan modern art, we trace the emergence of modern art in Tibet and its development after the 1950s. In the 1960s, local Tibetan artists were actively creating works and engaging with artists from inland China who came to Tibet for artistic inspirations. We will also touch on art during the Cultural Revolution in Tibet. After the Cultural Revolution when propaganda paintings proliferated, traditional art of Tibet has been revived and flourishing since the implementation of Reform and Open Policy, subsequently giving birth to the innovation of traditional art and diversified development of Tibetan art today.

This event will be conducted via Zoom. Registration required.

Organized by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. Co-sponsored by the Modern Tibetan Studies Program.