Lecture Professor Hsueh-man Shen: ‘Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Contesting Fields of Art, Archaeology, and Politics’

On Friday afternoon 12 April Professor Hsueh-man Shen will hold a lecture for the members of the KVVAK in the auditorium of the Rijksmuseum entitled ‘Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Contesting Fields of Art, Archaeology, and Politics’. The lecture will be in English.

Professor Hsueh-man Shen is Ehrenkranz Associate Professor in World Art, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and EURIAS Senior Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, 2018-2019.

15:15      Registration
15:30     Start lecture
17:00     End lecture and possibility to have drinks at the Museumcafé

Non-KVVAK members may register with membership number 0000

Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Contesting Fields of Art, Archaeology, and Politics

Recent discoveries of shipwrecks in South China Sea, the primary transit route for the world’s shipping between China and the Middle East and Europe in pre-modern times, have caused a sensation among scholars and the general public alike. These ships contained large quantities of trade goods, ranging from ceramics to coins and precious metals, and bear witness to the prosperous and active exchange of goods and ideas between East and West. Focusing on the past and the present of major findings, this lecture addresses not only the production and reception of trade goods in pre-modern China, but also the troubled relationship between archaeology and politics in the modern era, and the unique challenges shipwrecks present to museums.