Wu Hung Awarded NEH Fellowship
January 8, 2019
Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College has received a National Endowment for the Humanities award for the 2019-2020 academic year.
With the fellowship support, Wu will finish research for, and write, a book entitled "The Caves of a Thousand Buddhas at Dunhuang: An Art History." Constructed between the 4th to 14th CE at Dunhuang in northwest China on the Silk Road, the Mogao Caves constitute the largest Buddhist cave complex in the world.
Previous research of these caves, among which close to 500 contain rich murals and sculptures, has predominantly been conducted by archaeologists, historians, and painters-turned-scholars. Combining methodological reflection with historical investigation, and fusing a broad survey of the cave complex with close analyses of key examples, Wu’s new book will articulate an art historical methodology to lay a new basis for further art historical and interdisciplinary studies of Dunhuang art.
