Xin CONAN-WU [WU Xin] 吳欣

Xin CONAN-WU [Xin Wu] (吴欣 WU Xin)

Professor of Art History at William & Mary, is a historian of East Asian art, garden and landscape. She is especially interested in representations of nature and their cultural contexts, environment and education, gazetteers and maps, plants, and the encounters between East Asian and Western traditions from a comparative perspective. Recent publications include the history of academy landscape and gardens in Middle Period China and post-WWII and contemporary environmental art.

Curriculum Vitae

I was born in Shanghai and received my advanced education in China and Canada, and PhD in Great Britain. My main research area is Middle Period Chinese art and visual culture (and its exchanges with Korea & Japan, and with Europe & America since the Enlightenment), and global contemporary environmental art & designed landscapes. I have published books and articles in English and Chinese, hosted two academic columns, and lectured in Europe, America, and China.

The subject matter of my scholarly inquiry is landscape, including its 2-dimensional representation through paintings, prints, and maps, and its 3-dimensional representation through gardens, environmental art, and designed landscapes. The theme of landscape frames my research interest, enabling me to bridge the often-separated domains of historical inquiry and contemporary criticism, garden history and environmental art, interpretation and practice, East and West. Focusing on China and East Asia (including transpacific and Eurasia exchanges), my research on landscape evolved along three strands—the representation of nature, the process of creation, and the encounter of visual cultures. Firstly, I study the representation of nature as the cultural engagement with nature, which could be expressed in both pictorial depictions and designed spaces, such as gardens. Secondly, I study processes of creation as the prolonged artistic search leading to the formation of new visual languages, including reflection, experimentation, and production of artworks. Thirdly, I study encounters of visual cultures between different regions and traditions, between the historical and the contemporary, and between different media and practices.

With this site, I would like to keep you, and all the friends worldwide with whom I have made acquaintances and collaborated over the years, up-to-date on my progress. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to those who have inspired and encouraged me and remain supportive of my new endeavours.

William & Mary (Chartered 1693)

Department of Art & Art History, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA