Young Scholars’ Symposium in Asian Art 2025 | Asian art and material culture: new ways of seeing

The KVVAK is delighted to welcome you to the one-day symposium on 14 June 2025, the fifth in the series of KVVAK Young Scholars’ Symposia in Asian Art.
The symposium is entitled ‘Asian art and material culture: new ways of seeing’, because all of today’s presenters (BA and MA students, PhD candidates and early career researchers) will present their work that offers new perspectives and approaches to the art and material culture of Asia and the exchange between Asia and Europe.

The symposium is held at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the home of the KVVAK’s collection.

Start: 12.30 hrs.

This event has been made possible thanks to the help of numerous individuals and organisations. They include the KVVAK, Ikigai (KVVAK’s young professionals’ network), the Rijksmuseum, and the Wereldmuseum.

The symposium is supported by the Chair of Asian Art at Leiden University, in turn sponsored by the KVVAK, the Hulsewé-Wazniewski Foundation, the Isaac Ailion Foundation, and the Jan Menze van Diepen Stichting. We are especially grateful for the generous support of Pauline Boll-Kruseman and Thomas van Gulik of the Van Gulik Estate. Thanks to their financial contribution, we can make this symposium such a memorable event at the Rijksmuseum.

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Join livestream (details will follow later)

Time: 12.30 hrs. Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna CEST, 14 June 2025.

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12:00 hrs. Doors open

12:30 hrs. Welcome

By Anne Gerritsen (Professor Chair of Asian Art Leiden University, KVVAK), Senna van Dam (Ikigai) and Thomas van Gulik (Van Gulik Estate)

12:45 hrs. Panel 1 – Exchange Europe-Asia

Chair: Willemijn van Noord (Curator China, Wereldmuseum)

1. Laura Vermeulen

Dusted gold: A rediscovery of Satsuma in the Dutch museum landscape

2. Isabelle Stone

‘Hier blinckt de schoone regenboog’: Dirck van Rijswijck’s mastery of mother-of-pearl as a manifestation of the rainbow

3. Wenjin Li

The Trojan War’s Journey East: Adaptation from Antwerp Prints to Macau Embroidered Tapestries

14.00 hrs. Panel 2 – Southeast Asia and Persia

Chair: Priya Swamy, Curator Globalization and South Asia, Wereldmuseum

4. Sakshi Jain

Forged in Fire: The Sikligars and the East-West Evolution of Arms and Armours

5. Tiffany Wu

Ghosts in the Garden: Affective Encounters and Subversive Presence in Singapore’s Haw Par Villa

6. Muhammad Faiz

Javanese King through European Painter Lens: The Portrait of Pakubuwana IX in Sasana Mulya, Surakarta, Indonesia

7. Azar Emami Pari

Framing the Invisible: Landscape as Poetic Space in Persian Miniatures

15:30 hrs. Break

16.00 hrs. Panel 3 – Northeast Asia

Chair: Karwin Chi-On Cheung (Researcher Groningen University Museum)

8. Guochen Zhou

Seeking Protection: The Construction of a Vaiśravaṇa Niche in the Tang Huichang Era

9. Gowoon Yu

The Position of Korean Lacquerware in East Asian Art: Cultural Exchanges and Transformations

10. Steven Hoekstra

The Layers of a Print: Reconstructing the Design Process of Early Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints from Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)

11. Kuldip Kaur Singh

Jade and Femininity: The Transnational Creation of Values of Chinese Jade as Women’s Jewellery in the Early Twentieth Century

17:30 Closing remarks

By Anne Gerritsen

• Anne Gerritsen, Chair of Asian Art, Universiteit Leiden*
• Royal Society of Asian Art in the Netherlands (KVVAK)
• Ikigai (KVVAK young professionals’ network)
• Rijksmuseum
• Wereldmuseum

Rosalien van der Poel and Denise Campbell (KVVAK)

secretariaat@kvvak.nl

*The Chair of Asian Art at Leiden University is generously sponsored by KVVAK, Hulsewé-Wazniewski Stichting, Isaac Alfred Ailion Foundation and Jan Menze van Diepenstichting.