Register now for the Fall semester of the Arts of Asia lecture series! The Fall 2015 Arts of Asia series, “Asia’s Storied Traditions”, will explore narrative usage in Asian art – how myths, legends, histories, and moral precepts have been transmitted through visual means. Topics for discussion will range from the sculptural reliefs and murals used to educate pilgrims at famous religious sites (Sanchi, Dunhuang, etc.) to works created primarily for entertainment (Ramayana treatments, story depictions in Edo Ukiyo-e, the Shahnameh album paintings created for Shah Tahmasp, etc.). Contemporary storytelling will also be addressed via lectures on Bollywood and the manga produced by San Francisco’s Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama. !

As always, a distinguished roster of prominent scholars and curators will be delivering these lectures (see list below). To register online, please click here to visit the SAA website.

August 21
Introduction and Hindu and Mughal Narrative Art
Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker, Mills College  

August 28
The Moral of the Story: Narrative Art in Early China
Patricia Berger, UC Berkeley  

September 4
Storytelling with Pictures: An Asian Odyssey
Victor Mair, University of Pennsylvania  

September 11
Displaying the Past: Pictorial Depictions of the Buddhist Myths and Legends of the Kathmandu Valley
Alexander Von Rospatt, UC Berkeley  

September 18
The Badal Mahal at Burundi: A World Painted for Rajput Princes
Milo Beach, Former Director Freer & Sackler  

September 25
“Where Is This Story Going?” The Paradiegetic Pleasures of Popular Hindu Cinema
Ajay Gehlawat, Sonoma State University  

October 2
Japanese Medieval Scrolls
Melissa McCormick, Harvard University  

October 9
Telling the Tales of Rama
Forrest McGill, AAM  

October 16
“Reading” the Ramayana through Javanese Temple Reliefs
Natasha Reichle, AAM  

October 23
Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama and the Manga-Comics Nexus
Fred Schodt, Independent Scholar and Author  

October 30
Nine Cloud Dream, Nectar Ritual, and Much More in Korean Art
Kumja Paik Kim, AAM  

November 6
Stories Old and Untold in Edo Period Art: Implied and Informed Narratives
Timon Screech, SOAS  

November 13
Text and Image: Early Buddhist Narrative Sculpture from Northern India and Gandhara
Kurt Behrendt, Metropolitan Museum  

November 20
The Same Me That Stands Here Now: Jataka Tales on Tenth Century Reliquaries
Eugene Wang, Harvard University  

November 27
No class, Thanksgiving break  

December 4
The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp: A 16th Century Royal Persian Manuscript
Sheila Canby, Metropolitan Museum