Overview

British artists and commentators in the late 18th and early 19th century encoded the twin aspirations of progress and power in images and descriptions of Southeast Asia's ruined Hindu and Buddhist candis, pagodas, wats and monuments. To the British eye, images of the remains of past civilisations allowed, indeed stimulated, philosophical meditations on the rise and decline of entire empires. Ruins were witnesses to the fall, humbling and disturbingly prophetic, (and so revealing more about British attitudes than they do about Southeast Asia's cultural remains). This important study of a highly appealing but relatively neglected body of work adds multiple dimensions to the history of art and image production in Britain of the period, showing how the anxieties of empire were encoded in the genre of landscape paintings and prints.

Full Product Details

9789971698492

Table of Contents

Reviews

<i>Southeast Asia in Ruins</i> is a valuable and impressive addition to scholarship on British art. Richly diverse source materials are deftly deployed in an elegant, insightful and highly readable narrative that has the very great merit of focusing attention on these beautiful but all too frequently overlooked images. --Tony Ellwood, National Gallery of Victoria

This impeccable art history scholarship is the result of long and thorough doctoral research on decoding narratives hinted in landscape paintings and prints of Southeast Asia's Hindu and Buddhist sanctuaries in ruins...Tiffin's work and methodology are exemplary in showing how the study of images may be as heuristic as the study of text. --Tony Ellwood, National Gallery of Victoria Sojourn This is a richly-detailed academic study that is filled with original art but it's not too dense or complex to be out of reach of the casual reader. --Tony Ellwood, National Gallery of Victoria Star This immaculately written book, together with the excellently chosen illustrations, integrates early British visual culture regarding Southeast Asia with an important discussion of the relationships between European imperialism and art history. --John Crowley, Dalhousie University Southeast Asia in Ruins is a valuable and impressive addition to scholarship on British art. Richly diverse source materials are deftly deployed in an elegant, insightful and highly readable narrative that has the very great merit of focusing attention on these beautiful but all too frequently overlooked images. --Tony Ellwood, National Gallery of Victoria

A substantial new contribution to the history of British art that adds a fascinating new chapter to recent scholarship on landscape painting. --Tim Barringer, Yale University

Author Information

Sarah Tiffin was formerly curator of Asian art at the Queensland Art Gallery. She is the author of Sparse Shadows, Flying Pearls: A Japanese Screen Revealed.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available