Initially based on a comparative study of Chinese Euro-American art theory in the 18th 19th centuries, this book examines how both cultures looked at their own past their outside, i.e. what was construed as not belonging to their own cultural sphere, how they devised new ways of adapting them into evolving cultural constructs.
While the 17th century was still a time when the epistemological backgrounds of both civilizations were so profoundly different that nearly no dialogue was possible, the 18th century saw the emergence in both places of profound changes that would get them close enough to create the conditions fthe beginning of a conversation. First quite superficial taking shape mostly in the decorative arts, this process of rapprochement, while remaining chaotic unpredic, led to wider more profound zones of contact throughout the late 19th 20th centuries. Through the reinterpretations of each other’s cultural creations, these zones of contact grew wider as the conditions fglobalization became more more prevalent.
Frank Vigneron observes explores these changes through texts the visual arts to reveal how these two civilizations, while keeping their own characteristics, managed to develop fruitful dialogues create deeply intertwined cultures. As an example, the final chapter looks at contemporary Chinese calligraphy as an art that, even though it has no equivalent in Euro-America, successfully integrated cross-cultural theoretical elements, thus exemplifying how past outside can combine into new artistic constructs.