Just Published: Ars Orientalis, Volume 54
Jahangir entertains Shah ʿAbbas (detail), from the St. Petersburg Album, attributed to Bishandas, ca. 1620, India, opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art Collection, Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1942.16a
December 19, 2024 | Freer Research Center
The 54th volume of Ars Orientalis brings exciting changes, including a shift in the journal’s submission model and a new column. Essays in this volume examine Indian painting, stone sculptures and “religious ecology,” a Chinese pagoda, sketches from our archives, and more.
This volume marks the journal’s change to open submissions. Since 2011, guest editors have proposed a theme for each year’s publication. Through the open submission model, we now welcome prospective articles on any topic related to the arts of the broad geographic area of Asia, from the ancient period to the contemporary. We hope to expand the journal’s scope to explore new subjects, encourage submissions from a wide range of scholars, and reach new and diverse audiences.
A new column called Conversations from the Field debuts in this volume. These occasional, non–peer reviewed entries will highlight methodological approaches, interviews with contemporary artists, and reflections on the field. For the first feature, we interviewed artist Jananne Al-Ani, who works with film, photography, and video. She discusses her use of the camera to engage with the familiar and discover the unfamiliar in landscapes, portraits, and engravings.
In addition, this issue’s Digital Initiatives article considers artificial intelligence (AI) and its consequences for scholarship and publishing. Established in 2014, this section continues to evaluate crucial new research and trends in the digital humanities.
As always, we’re excited to share this volume and all past issues online with free, open access.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Massumeh Farhad
Records From a Disappearing Temple: A Note on the “King and Queen” in the Painted Gallery at Kuh-i Khwāja
Frantz Grenet
Moving Mountains and Swallowing Seas: Śaiva Gurus as Ecological Agents in Early South and Southeast Asia
Elizabeth Cecil
Rock, Paper, Scissors: Durable Ephemera and Networks of Stone in Quanzhou’s Zhenguo Pagoda
Jennifer Purtle
Images Old and New: Buddhist Painting Preservation and the Transmission of Tradition in Premodern Japan
Miriam Chusid
Invader Enthroned: The Indian Portraits of Nadir Shah and Their Local and British Collectors
Janet O’Brien
From Private to Public: The Movement of Pahari Paintings from Royal Collections to the Chandigarh Museum in Post-Independence India
Vrinda Agrawal
Conversations from the Field
Jananne Al-Ani in Conversation
Jananne Al-Ani with Massumeh Farhad
Digital Initiatives
Scholarly Writing in the Face of Generative AI: A View from Art History
Nancy Um
Read more about AO, browse past volumes, and review the submission guidelines and deadlines at arsorientalis.si.edu.
