Institute for East Asian Art History Katharina Rode-Kaya

Katharina Rode-Kaya’s research interests coalesce around artists as historical personae, combining the reconstruction of their oeuvre with collecting and patronage networks, the relationships with their peers, and their relative position in the art world of their time. She is currently turning her PhD research on the role of pictorial models and creative adaptation in Meiji period nihonga painting on the example of the art school professor and Maruyama School Kawabata Gyokushō (1842-1913) into her first monograph. The study combines aspects of art education, model book publications, and painting practice with Gyokushō’s achievements and his relationship to the founder of the Maruyama school, Maruyama Ōkyo (1733-1795).  

At the same time, Katharina is editing a publication project together with Dr. Jens Bartel that reexamines the Maruyama and Shijō artists from Maruyama Ōkyo to Gyokushō. Her contributing chapter delves into the importance of locality for Gyokushō’s work and patronage relationships as he spent his life with strong ties to both Kyoto and Tokyo.  

Delving into other areas as well, another article project analyzes the parameters of stylistic proclivities within the environment of late eighteenth century Edo, one focus being the group of Akita Ranga painters. Part of this project is the importance of model book publications for artists, and the politics of art production for different peer groups.

Contemporary art has also been a longstanding interest of Katharina. Here, her research traces how artists navigate the art world differently by constructing distinct artist identities that reach into the techniques and materials of their works. While being part of their branding process, the artists do not have full control over their representation e.g. in other cultural contexts or social media. At the same time, it is often a struggle to translate stylistically inherent philosophies for an international audience.  

 

Since 2019 Assistant Professor for Japanese Art History, Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University  

 

2021 Ph.D. (defended) in East Asian Art Histories Studies, Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University  

 

2015-2016 Doctoral Research Fellow at Gakushūin University, Japan.

2013 Magister in East Asian Art History / Japanese Studies, Institute of East Asian Art History/ Institute for Japanese Studies, Heidelberg University

 

“Negotiating Realism: Kawabata Gyokushō’s Strive for Modern Japanese Painting.” In The Visual Culture of Meiji Japan: Negotiating the Transition to Modernity. Edited by Ayelet Zohar and Alison Miller. Routledge Research in Art History Ser. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.

“Genealogy over Ideology? A Closer Look at Kawabata Gyokushō’s Group of Monkeys.” In Zōkei no poetika: Nihonbijutsushi wo meguru arata na chihei: Nihonbijutsushi wo meguru arata na chihei. Edited by Editorial Society for the Collected Volume in Honor of Professor Sano Midori’s Retirement (Sano Midori-sensei goki kinen ronshū kankō kai) [The Poetics of Form: New Horizons in Japanese Art History]. Tokyo: Seikansha, 2021.

 

Support Grant for Arts and Culture from the Korea Foundation for the workshop “Korean Art Histories and Materialities”, 2023.

 

Geschwister Supp Foundation, PhD Finishing Grant, 2018-2019.

 

PhD Scholarship, Graduate Program for Transcultural Studies (GPTS) at the Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’ (now Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies (HCTS)), including several additional, internal traveling grants, 2014-2018.

 

MEXT Scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education for one year of study as a research fellow at Gakushūin University, Tokyo, 2015-2016.

 

JASSO Scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education for one year as an ISEP exchange student at Tokyo Gakugei University, 2009-2010.

 

Since 2019 Coordinator for the Ishibashi Foundation Visiting Professor Program.

Since 2019 Mid-level Representative for the Administration and Management Committee (ZO-Rat)

Since 2018 Member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst.

Since 2015 Member of the organizing committee for the “Forum Ostasiatische Kunstgeschichte im deutschsprachigen Raum.” https://oakg-forum.jimdofree.com/  

Since 2014 Member of the Japanese Art History Forum, and European Association for Japanese Studies.

 

Grundkurs “Propädeutikum IV: Methoden und Theorien” (with Monica Klasing Chen), summer term 2024.

Praxis-Seminar (Hilfsmittelkurs): Identity Construction in Japanese Contemporary Art, winter term 2023/24.

Grundkurs “Propädeutikum III: Gattungen und Techniken” (together with Monica Klasing Chen), winter term 2023/2024.

Seminar „ Methods and Tools for Meiji Art Research” winter term 2022.

 

Main-organizer of the hybrid symposium Narrating Japanese Art Histories: Past, Present, and Future (Jun 28-30, 2024) in cooperation with, and supported by the Ishibashi Foundation, and Japan Foundation (with Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer, Anton Schweizer and Lianming Wang).

Organizer of the Forum East Asian Art History (May 10-11, 2024) (with Monica Klasing Chen and the organizing team in Berlin, Zurich and Vienna).

Main-organizer of the hybrid Special Workshop: Korean Art Histories and Materialities (Dec 2, 2023) in cooperation with the Korea Foundation.

Academic lecture: “Auf Strohsandalen durch die Lande: Reisende Japaner und die Kunst” [On straw sandals across the countryside: Traveling Japanese and the arts], Städtische Galerie Villingen- Schwenningen (June 23, 2022), accompanying the exhibition “Auf nach Japan! Künstlerreisen zwischen Sehnsucht und Realität” [Off to Japan! Artist travel between longing and reality] (Jun - Aug, 2022).

Academic lecture: “Sophistication on Commission: Collection Building and Exhibition Culture in the 1890s”, Satsuma-Konishi Lecture Leuven University, (May 11, 2022).

PR/outreach coordinator for student information days, CATS student info market.

Initiator and manager of the IKO Instagram account @iko.heidelberg (together with Susann Henker).