“A Long and Tumultuous Relationship”: East-West Interchanges in American Art October 1–2, 2009 
Smithsonian American Art Museum 
Washington, D.C. 



This two-day symposium will explore 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. This multidisciplinary conference will focus instead on what scholar Bert Winther-Tamaki has called the "contentious interdependency" born out of a "long and tumultuous relationship" between East and West. 



Papers by both senior and emerging scholars and curators will explore cultural interactions in a variety of "contact zones" ranging from the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the United States to venues of artistic production in India, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Speakers consider the circulation of artists, objects, and ideas over time and the impact of these crossings on art and culture at large; reflect on the changing face of Orientalism; look at international conversations about race and identity; and explore developments in studio craft and the import market. 



"A Long and Tumultuous Relationship": East-West Interchanges in American Art is being organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in partnership with the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program. It is supported by a generous grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art. 



No registration is required to attend the conference talks. Advance online registration is required, however, for a variety of related tours being offered on the morning of October 1. The symposium also will be available for viewing in a simultaneous and, later, an archived webcast. For more information about this event, including a full program, speakers’ bios and abstracts, and tour registration, please visit the web page at www.americanart.si.edu/research/symposia/2009/ . 


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