The department’s coverage of East Asian art is shared by Professors Peter Sturman and Miriam Wattles, whose courses primarily focus on the pictorial and graphic traditions of China and Japan. The undergraduate curriculum is founded upon two lower division survey courses  (China/Inner Asia and Japan/Korea)that are offered in alternate years, and it is supplemented by a wide range of more highly focused upper division courses and seminars. Teaching is often designed around exhibitions of Asian art at local museums, and students occasionally have the opportunity to assist in mounting small-scale shows. Motivated undergraduate students interested in developing a focused specialization in East Asian art history are encouraged to consult with their professors to develop individual programs and work on special projects. The graduate program in EastAsian Art History at UCSB centers on text-image relationships. These relationships can be  explored in various forms and in a range of historical eras depending upon student interest, but the foundational work includes a strong commitment to achieving an advanced ability to read and creatively utilize the rich textual traditions of China and Japan. UCSB is one of the only programs in the country to offer advanced study in both Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. Graduate work in East Asian art history includes training in the reading of all forms of scripts and seals as well as the history of calligraphy as an art.

Much of Peter Sturman’s work has and continues to be centered upon the painting and calligraphy of the Song dynasty, with a primary focus on the development and evolution of the literati tradition of painting and theories of creativity. Secondary interests, however, extend back in time to Han dynasty calligraphy, and as far forward as the 20th century and the development of Chinese modernist art. His current students are working on painting and calligraphy subjects of the 18th—20th centuries. Opportunities to work on museum exhibitions are common, the most recent being a show of Qing dynasty calligraphy couplets at the University Art Museum.

Miriam Wattles focuses on ukiyo-e, illustrated books, and various painting traditions of the Edo period, but her work also extends to include the fine and popular arts of the 20th century. Her work investigates developing popular conceptions of the artist and the formation of the art world through print culture. She looks particularly at the interplay of pictorial culture with haikai poetry, gesaku fiction, and kabuki theatre. Her students regularly help organize small exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art out of their extensive permanent collection of woodblock prints. 

Graduate students in East Asian art history work closely with the faculty of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, and they have ample opportunities to take seminars with the faculty at nearby UCLA. Students who focus on Chinese art have additional funding available through the generosity of the WTF Fund.