Frederick Asher (University of Minnesota)

updated: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 08:29:55 -0500 (CDT)

Frederick M. Asher
Chair, Department of Art History
University of Minnesota
338 Heller Hall
271 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455  USA

Phones: 612-624-4500
        612-624-3569
FAX:    612-626-8679
email:  asher@tc.umn.edu

Description of work:

Projects:

1. Indian artists working in traditional modes, particularly focusing
on artists at Patharkati and their kin working in Jaipur; I am
interested in how they procure their stone, how they interact with
patrons or otherwise sell their products, how they evaluate quality,
and all other aspects of their work.

2. The source of rock from which eastern Indian sculptures,
particularly those of the Pala dynasty, were carved; I am purusing
this by examining the petrology of samples from both sculptures and
possible quarry sites.

3. The historiography of the discipline, that is, 
South Asian art history; I am particularly interested in the construction
of the discipline along religious lines and the sense that seems to
permeate scholarship that, in essence, the older the work the more
interesting it is, or, conversely, the more recent the less interesting it
is for art historians.