Biography
I learned Chinese painting from the late James Cahill at the University of California, Berkeley. While I was a graduate student, I also had the great fortune of studying with Tu Wei-ming, Cyril Birch, and the late Edward H. Schafer. After spending three years in Japan as a Research Fellow at Kyoto University, I completed my dissertation on the late Ming artist Chen Hongshou (1598/99-1652). I have taught at Grinnell College, the University of Chicago, and, briefly, at Stanford University. In 1995, I came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Research Interests
Seventeenth-century Chinese painting and woodblock-printed books
Research Description
My research interests lie primarily in seventeenth-century Chinese painting and woodblock-printed books. In this context, I have focused on themes that engage self-representation, theories of vision and ways of seeing, as well as the interrelationship between words and images, painting and print. Recently, I am rethinking the traditional Chinese garden from the perspective of the environmental humanities. I am also researching a new book entitled "Engaging Artifice: Chen Hongshou (1598/99-1652) and the Illustrated Book."
Education
University of California, Berkeley, MA (1977) and PhD (1987), in Art History
Grants
J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art and Humanities (1988; declined); J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art and Humanities (1992-93); Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2017-18)
Courses Taught
EALC 114: Introduction to East Asian Art; EALC 402: Ways of Seeing in Edo Japan; EALC 403: Word and Image in Chinese Art; EALC 501: Graduate Seminar in Chinese Art (on various topics); forthcoming, "Art, Society, Ecology."
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures
Associate Professor, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
Honors & Awards
Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize, College Art Association, January 1995, for “Elegant or Common? Chen Hongshou’s Birthday Presentation Pictures and His Professional Status,” Art Bulletin 76, 2 (June 1994): 227-300.
Recent Publications
Burkus-Chasson, A. (2019). Chen Hongshou's Laments. Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, 6(1), 96-136. https://doi.org/10.1215/23290048-7496846
Burkus-Chasson, A. (2016). Visual hermeneutics and the act of turning the leaf: A genealogy of liu yuans lingyan ge. In The History of the Book in East Asia (pp. 289-334). Taylor and Francis.
Burkus-Chasson, A. (2015). Like Not Like: Writing Portraits in The Peony Pavilion. Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, 2(1), 134-172. https://doi.org/10.1215/23290048-2887577
Burkus-Chasson, A. (2014). Qi Biaojia’s Garden. Paper presented at Eco-Art History, Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Burkus-Chasson, A. (2014). Review: K.P. Burnett's Dimensions of Originality: Essays on Seventeenth-Century Chinese Art Theory and Criticism. Journal of Chinese Studies, 58, 346-348.