The Fifth International Graduate Symposium of Art History

Everything has its history. In the transition from the “linguistic turn” to the “pictorial turn”, image has not only permeated every aspect of our life, but also has more profoundly shaped the ways in which we understand the past, present and future, than ever. The historical ruins always bring us the nostalgic memories. Xie He (479-502) once said: “The thousand years of silence can be seen from a displayed painting.” In China, the image has long been regarded as a cognitive means of understanding history. To some extent, the history of art is the history of studying man-made things within the frame of history. However, whether the image can be used as reliable evidence for the historical research? How should the Art History do in the debate of “image demonstrating history” or “history demonstrating image”? In the Shape of Time, George Kubler has warned the new generation of academics to abandon the simple “biological model”, and to replace it with the more complicated and more precise historical narratives. The “retro” in Chinese traditional culture is a very interesting historical and cultural phenomena. A lot of art history innovations have been achieved through the retro. In these cases, to promote the retro does not mean to completely “recover” or “respond” to the real ancient times, but to view the future as the past in order to obtain the contemporary art visions, through remembering, tracing and fusing some lost images. The 2014 Peking University Graduate Symposium aims to provide the young scholars with an intellectually engaging platform, where they can exchange ideas and share their own research through the theme of “Image and Time”. We are now open to accept proposals from graduate students both in China and overseas. During the symposium, we will offer accommodations to the invited participants, including food and lodging. In addition, we will cover costs for a field trip for the participants, which will be organized following the symposium. The working language will be both Chinese and English.