The newly founded Institute for the Study of American Art in China (ISAAC) is a three-year collaboration between Nanjing University , the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, with the support of the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Housed at Nanjing University, ISAAC is dedicated to increasing understanding of American art in China from the colonial period to the present day. Focused initially on the art of the United States, the program will eventually widen its scope to include modern, colonial, and indigenous art in the entire American hemisphere.
The Institute has several aims, including an annual program of study and travel in the United States for select faculty of Nanjing University and, eventually, other Chinese universities; an annual Summer Study Seminar in Nanjing on topics in American art history; a program of exhibitions of American art curated by Sino-American teams for a Chinese audience; and a continuing program of translating important books on American art to be published by the Nanjing University Press for distribution throughout China.
We welcomed our first Fellows in the Fall of 2017.
The Institute for the Study of American Art in China (ISAAC) is a three-year collaboration between Nanjing University, the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, with the support of the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Each year, the Art Institute of Nanjing University will select three distinguished Chinese scholars; one senior scholar to be in residence for three months, and two junior scholars to be in residence for two academic semesters at the O’Donnell Institute. During their residence, the scholars will work in libraries, universities, museums and private collections in Dallas-Fort Worth and in addition travel to collections, archives, and libraries throughout the United States, to learn the American landscape, and to meet scholars, students, and collectors.
Through ISAAC, Nanjing University Press is reproducing ten of the most important American Art History books for translation, publication, and teaching in China. The first in production is Robert Henri’s “The Art Spirit”.
Help Bring the William Henry Gerdts Jr. Library to ISAAC
The acquisition of an important American Art Library for ISAAC headquarters in Nanjing has become an urgent need. The late Dr. Richard R. Brettell, guided by Milan R. Hughston, Art Information Specialist and former Chief of Library and Museum Archives at the Museum of Modern Art, identified the library of William Henry Gerdts Jr., famed American art scholar and bibliophile, as the greatest American art library in the world. Its 10,800 volumes will instantly be one of the most important resources for the study of American art anywhere.
We invite you to donate toward the acquisition of Dr. Gerdts’s library and become part of this cultural and diplomatic program which brings Chinese and American students and scholars together for a long time to come.
If you are interested in helping ISAAC, please contact Pierrette Lacour, pierret@utdallas.edu, or call 469-236-0104.
Read more about how the Gerdts Library will benefit ISAAC (pdf)
Download the e-booklet (pdf) of ISAAC at Nanjing University
Richard R. Brettell, Founding Director, The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, The University of Texas at Dallas