Asian art
The history of Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. Asian art is typically divided into broad blocks: East Asian art includes works from China, Japan, Korea and Tibetan art, while Southeast Asian art includes the arts of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Historically, South Asian art mostly falls under Indian art, which encompasses the arts of the Indian subcontinent, while Central Asian art covers that region. West Asian art encompasses the arts of the Ancient Near East including Mesopotamian art and Persian art, and more recently becoming dominated by Islamic art.
In many ways, the history of Eastern art parallels the development of Western art. The art histories of Asia and Europe repeatedly intertwine, with Asian art greatly influencing European art, and vice versa; the Eurasian cultures mixed through methods such as steppe-nomad migrations,
followed successively by the Silk Road transmission of art, the cultural exchange of the Age of Discovery and Western colonization, and through the Internet and modern globalization.
Excluding prehistoric art, the art of Mesopotamia represents the oldest forms of art in Asia.
Upper Paleolithic Northeast Asia
The first modern human occupation in the difficult climates of Northeast Asia is dated to circa 40,000 ago, with the early Yana culture of northern Siberia dated to circa 31,000 BCE. By around 21,000 BCE, two main cultures developed: the Mal'ta culture and slightly later the Afontova Gora-Oshurkovo culture.The Mal'ta culture, centered around at Mal'ta, at the Angara River, near Lake Baikal in Irkutsk Oblast, Southern Siberia, created some of the first works of art in the Upper Paleolithic period, with objects such as the Venus figurines of Mal'ta. These figures consist most often of mammoth ivory. The figures are about 23,000 years old and stem from the Gravettian. Most of these statuettes show stylized clothes. Quite often the face is depicted. The tradition of Upper Paleolithic portable statuettes being almost exclusively European, it has been suggested that Mal'ta had some kind of cultural and cultic connection with Europe during that time period, but this remains unsettled.
East Asian art
Chinese art
Chinese art has varied throughout its ancient history, divided into periods by the ruling dynasties of China and changing technology. Different forms of art have been influenced by great philosophers, teachers, religious figures, and even political leaders. Chinese art encompasses fine arts, folk arts, and performance arts. Chinese art is art, whether modern or ancient, that originated from or is practiced in China or by Chinese artists or performers.In the Song dynasty, poetry was marked by a lyric poetry known as Ci which expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona. Also in the Song dynasty, paintings of more subtle expressions of landscapes appeared, with blurred outlines and mountain contours which conveyed distance through an impressionistic treatment of natural phenomena. It was during this period that in painting, emphasis was placed on spiritual rather than emotional elements, as in the previous period. Kunqu, the oldest extant form of Chinese opera developed during the Song dynasty in Kunshan, near present-day Shanghai. In the Yuan dynasty, painting by the Chinese painter Zhao Mengfu greatly influenced later Chinese landscape painting, and the Yuan dynasty opera became a variant of Chinese opera which continues today as Cantonese opera.
Chinese painting
and Xieyi are two painting styles in Chinese painting.Gongbi means "meticulous", the rich colours and details in the picture are its main features, its content mainly depicts portraits or narratives. Xieyi means 'freehand', its form is often exaggerated and unreal, with an emphasis on the author's emotional expression and usually used in depicting landscapes.
In addition to paper and silk, traditional paintings have also been done on the walls, such as the Mogao Grottoes in Gansu Province. The Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes were built in the Northern Wei dynasty. It consists of more than 700 caves, of which 492 caves have murals on the walls, totalling more than 45,000 square meters. The murals are very broad in content, include Buddha statues, paradise, angels, important historical events, and even donors. The painting styles in early caves received influence from India and the West. From the Tang dynasty, the murals began to reflect the unique Chinese painting style.
Chinese Calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy can be traced back to the Dazhuan that appeared in the Zhou dynasty. After Emperor Qin unified China, Prime Minister Li Si collected and compiled Xiaozhuan style as the new official text. The small seal script is very elegant but difficult to write quickly. In the Eastern Han dynasty, a type of script called the Lishu began to rise. Because it reveals no circles and very few curved lines, it is very suitable for fast writing. After that, the Kaishu style has appeared, and as its structure is simpler and neater, this script is still widely used today.Ancient Chinese crafts
JadeEarly jade was used as an ornament or as sacrificial utensils. The earliest Chinese carved-jade object appeared in the Hemudu culture in the early Neolithic period. During the Shang dynasty, Bi and Cong appeared, which were presumed to be sacrificial utensils, representing the sky and the earth. In the Zhou dynasty, due to the use of higher hardness engraving tools, jades were carved more delicately and began to be used as a pendant or ornament in clothing. Jade was considered to be immortal and could protect the owner, so carved-jade objects were often buried with the deceased, such as a jade burial suit from the tomb of Liu Sheng, a prince of the Western Han dynasty.
Porcelain
Porcelain is a kind of ceramic made from kaolin at high temperature. The earliest ceramics in China appeared in the Shang dynasty. And the production of ceramics laid the foundation for the invention of porcelain. The history of Chinese porcelain can be traced back to the Han dynasty. In the Tang dynasty, porcelain was divided into celadon and white porcelain. In the Song dynasty, Jingdezhen was selected as the royal porcelain production centre and began to produce blue and white porcelain.
Modern Chinese art
After the end of the last feudal dynasty in China, with the rise of the new cultural movement, Chinese artists began to be influenced by Western art and began to integrate Western art into Chinese culture. Influenced by American jazz, Chinese composer Li Jinhui began to create and promote popular music, which made a huge sensation. At the beginning of the 20th century, oil paintings were introduced to China, and more and more Chinese painters began to touch Western painting techniques and combine them with traditional Chinese painting. Meanwhile, a new form of painting, comics, had also begun to rise. It was popular with many people and became the most affordable way to entertain at the time.Tibetan art
Tibetan art is the distinct art of Tibet and other present and former Himalayan kingdoms. Tibetan art is first and foremost a form of sacred art, reflecting the overriding influence of Tibetan Buddhism on these cultures. The Sand Mandala is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition which symbolises the transitory nature of things. As part of Buddhist canon, all things material are seen as transitory. A sand mandala is an example of this, being that once it has been built and its accompanying ceremonies and viewing are finished, it is systematically destroyed.As Mahayana Buddhism emerged as a separate school in the 4th century BC it emphasized the role of bodhisattvas, compassionate beings who forgo their personal escape to Nirvana in order to assist others. From an early time various bodhisattvas were also subjects of statuary art. Tibetan Buddhism, as an offspring of Mahayana Buddhism, inherited this tradition. But the additional dominating presence of the Vajrayana may have had an overriding importance in the artistic culture. A common bodhisattva depicted in Tibetan art is the deity Chenrezig, often portrayed as a thousand-armed saint with an eye in the middle of each hand, representing the all-seeing compassionate one who hears our requests. This deity can also be understood as a Yidam, or 'meditation Buddha' for Vajrayana practice.
Tibetan Buddhism contains Tantric Buddhism, also known as Vajrayana Buddhism for its common symbolism of the vajra, the diamond thunderbolt. Most of the typical Tibetan Buddhist art can be seen as part of the practice of tantra. Vajrayana techniques incorporate many visualizations/imaginations during meditation, and most of the elaborate tantric art can be seen as aids to these visualizations; from representations of meditational deities to mandalas and all kinds of ritual implements.
File:Mantras caved into rock in Tibet.jpg|thumb|In Tibet, many Buddhists carve mantras into rocks as a form of devotion.
A visual aspect of Tantric Buddhism is the common representation of wrathful deities, often depicted with angry faces, circles of flame, or with the skulls of the dead. These images represent the Protectors and their fearsome bearing belies their true compassionate nature. Actually, their wrath represents their dedication to the protection of the dharma teaching as well as to the protection of the specific tantric practices to prevent corruption or disruption of the practice. They are most importantly used as wrathful psychological aspects that can be used to conquer the negative attitudes of the practitioner.
Historians note that Chinese painting had a profound influence on Tibetan painting in general. Starting from the 14th and 15th century, Tibetan painting had incorporated many elements from the Chinese, and during the 18th century, Chinese painting had a deep and far-reaching impact on Tibetan visual art. According to Giuseppe Tucci, by the time of the Qing dynasty, "a new Tibetan art was then developed, which in a certain sense was a provincial echo of the Chinese 18th century's smooth ornate preciosity."