Lecture 1: Introduction and Pre-Han Pictorial Art

I begin by introducing my three major teachers, and go on to outline the background of the series: early attempts at histories of Chinese painting, photographing and cataloguing projects carried out in the 1960s-70s, changing ideas about how art history should be constructed and written. I introduce Ernst Gombrich as a model for the kind of art-historical narrative I will attempt, but also emphasize the strong tradition of critical and historical writing in China that underlies my account. This first lecture ends with a brief introduction to early pictorial art in China: Neolithic painted pots, hunting-style bronzes, the earliest paintings on silk from Changsha.

Study guides for each lecture in the Pure and Remote View Series will be made available on the website of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley (http://ieas.berkeley.edu/), as well as on my website (http://jamescahill.info/). All these, as well as the lectures themselves, are to be downloaded and used freely by anyone, without charge; this is a completely non-profit project.

I want to thank my many teachers and colleagues, and the many museums, universities (most of all U.C. Berkeley), and other institutions that have supported me over the decades of my career. In particular, I want to thank the Tang Research Foundation of Evanston, Iliinois and its founder for encouraging me to undertake this series and providing initial financial support for it; and the Institute of East Asian Studies at U. C. Berkeley for taking on the administration of the project and the publication of its products as part of their program.

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