Art of Gift in Cross-Cultural Exchanges

The common themes of didactic, secular lyrical and religious morals in classical art are entrenched within its social-political conditions. Respectively, the representations and narratives of gifts in art of the later period shared a tendency of being entertaining, performative or recreational that provided visual immediacy to the commoners. We would argue that such transformation is partly relevant to the secularization of society along with the flourishing commercial and entertaining activities of city life, and its cross-cultural exchanges. This workshop aims to discuss the narratives conveyed through the art of gifts in the cross-cultural context, addressing to the issues such as artists and their socialising media; the misinterpretation and translation; the industry of art gift-making; trade and market; sovereignty and power that demonstrated through the choice of gifts and illustrations.