Asian Art History Lecture, 12/8

[NADINE CARPENTER - ART DEPT.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 21, 1997

VISITING ASIAN ART HISTORIAN, GAIL CHIN, TO GIVE LECTURE, "HEAVEN
AND HELL IN EARLY MEDIEVAL JAPANESE ART," ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 8,
1997 AT 5:00 P.M. IN 301 WILLIAMS HALL, UVM, SPONSORED BY ART
DEPARTMENT

Prof. Gail Chin, Visiting Art History Professor in the Art
Department at UVM, is an Asian art historian from Victoria,
British Columbia who will deliver a lecture entitled, "Heaven and
Hell in Early Medieval Japanese Art," on Monday, December 8, 1997
at 5:00 p.m. in 301 Williams Hall.
The slide lecture will describe how paradise and hells are
states of mind, but Japanese Buddhists from the eleventh to the
fourteenth centuries were convinced of their realities, and their
visualizations were put into concrete form by artists and
architects. This lecture will examine some of the monuments
attesting to early medieval Japanese Buddhist ideas about death,
reincarnation, and salvation. Also, the goal of birth in the
Pure Land of the Buddha Amida was so real to the Japanese that in
the late twentieth century they still re-enact the ascension of
an eighth century princess in ritual-theatrical form, and slides
will be shown of this ritual in conjunction with the art.
Prof. Chin's dissertation was concerned with one aspect of
Japanese Buddhist paintings about death visions at the point of
salvation and she has continued her research to include some
paintings concerned with reincarnation.
Prof. Chin's lecture, sponsored by the Art Department, is
free and open to the public. For information, please call Nadine
in the Art Department 656-2014.
*Williams Hall is wheelchair accessible.
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