Dr. Angelo LO CONTE, Associate Director (Research) and Associate Professor, AVA, SCA in HKBU, will retrace micro-art-histories that foster the investigation of social perceptions of sensory disability in early modern Europe. 

 
Dr. Yun-chen LU, Assistant Professor, History of Art and Architecture, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences from DePaul University, will take us on a journey through how the Yangzhou School developed a new disability art and aesthetics that were favored by local art patrons. 

The joint lecture series “Pair Talks on Art Histories” co-organised by Hong Kong Baptist University (Academy of Visual Arts, School of Creative Arts) and City University of Hong Kong (Department of Chinese and History) aim to provide a platform to introduce emerging research topics and new perspectives and approaches in the study of visual arts and material culture and to facilitate the exchange of ideas and interdisciplinary dialogues between scholars based in Hong Kong and those from Europe, the United States, Mainland China and beyond. In the academic year 2023-2024, it organised five rounds of paired talks in the themes of “Archaeology and Possibilities of Transcultural Exchanges in Early China,” “Buddhist Objects and the East Asian Maritime World,” “Gender and Photography,” “Chinese Paintings on the Move: Narratives and Reproduction” and “Artefacts, Contacts, and Material Culture in Early China”.

 

On 15th November 2024, there will be a new round of paired talks (CCL Lecture) in the theme of “Art and Disability in Early Modern Europe and China” by two scholars Dr. Yun-chen LU (Department of History of Art and Architecture, DePaul University) and Dr. Angelo LO CONTE (Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University), followed by a discussion led by Dr. Yizhou WANG (Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University). It focuses on the artists with disability in the early modern period, with case studies in both Europe and China, and it examines the agency of disability in the production of arts and artistic self-expression. It will be delivered in English. Registration is required.

“Micro-art-histories and Social Perceptions of Disability in Early Modern Europe” 

by Dr. Angelo Lo Conte, Associate Director (Research) and Associate Professor, Academy of Visual Arts, School of Creative Arts, HKBU

The paper retraces micro-art-histories that foster the investigation of social perceptions of sensory disability in early modern Europe. By looking at early modern biographical accounts, archival documents, works of art, and contemporary poetry, it challenges the stereotype that presents people with deafness as outcasts and emphasizes that the consideration of intersectional factors was essential to how early modern people responded to impairment. The paper recognizes the presence of deaf artists in the history art, presenting their artworks, notebooks, and documents pertaining to their life to describe how they asserted their own profession, identity, and citizenship through art practice. 

 

“The Creation of Disability Art and Aesthetics in Eighteenth-Century Yangzhou” 

by Dr. Yun-chen LU, Assistant Professor, History of Art and Architecture, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences from DePaul University

The Yangzhou School, also known as the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, was a group of artists who were active in eighteenth-century Yangzhou and gained renown for moving beyond the orthodox literati style in favor of their own aesthetic choices. Several of them had physical disabilities. My research centers on these artists and how they developed a new disability art and aesthetics that were favored by local art patrons. Among these artists, Gao Fenghan (1683–1749) first earned fame because of his left-handed style, which he developed after the paralysis of his right hand in 1737. This talk focuses on Gao Fenghan’s formation as an artist with a disability and the creation of his left-handed style, which has “raw, obstinate, rough, and awkward” qualities that he valued. I investigate Gao’s artistic developments before and after his disability, how disability is part of his own narratives when discussing his works, and how his art was received and gained success in the Yangzhou art market. This research considers an older tradition and history of appreciating different bodies and abilities in China. More specifically, it offers a new understanding of disability aesthetics rooted in Chinese culture, history, and philosophy. 

 

Language: English