John P. Bowles, assistant professor of African-American art, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"New Negro on the Pacific Rim: Sargent Johnson's Afro-Asian Sculptures"

 

"A Long and Tumultuous Relationship"

East-West Interchanges in American Art

 

October 1--2, 2009

 

This two-day symposium at the Smithsonian American Art Museum explored the complicated interactions between American and Asian artists and visual traditions from the eighteenth century to the present. The history of American art has long been discussed primarily in terms of European training and influence. When scholars have looked eastward, they often have considered the Asian influence on art of the United States as a unidirectional and limited development, suggesting that Asian culture was monolithic and unchanging while characterizing American artists as dynamic and original in their ability to absorb and meld the best of diverse global outlooks.