The Santa Barbara Museum of Art and UCSB are co-sponsoring a two-day symposium, Jan. 11-12, in conjunction with the major exhibition “The Artful Recluse: Painting, Poetry and Politics in 17th-Century China.”

The symposium, focusing on the interdisciplinary nature of 17th-century Chinese art, brings together some of the most important scholars of Chinese art history, history and literature, with specific expertise in the study of early-modern China to present new research related to image-making in words, pictures and thought.

Subjects of interest include forgeries and the art market in the late Ming dynasty; aspects of the burgeoning print industry in the late Ming; courtesan culture as a site for both political and gender expression; and explorations of the loyalist painters, including Xiang Shengmo, Gong Xian and Bada Shanren.

Click here for a complete itinerary.

SBMA members get in free, but to receive free seating must register by phone at 805.963.4364 x400 and arrive 15 minutes early; seating is limited. The cost is $20 for nonmembers, and $10 for seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased at the Visitor Services desks or online by clicking here.

The symposium will be held in the Mary Craig Auditorium of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St.

The symposium is made possible with the support of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange; UCSB’s College of Letters and Science Interdisciplinary Humanities Center; the Department of the History of Art and Architecture; the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies; and SBMA’s Friends of Asian Art.

— Katrina Carl is the public relations manager for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.