Page 21 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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Theories and Methods

This dissertation largely addresses the history of Chinese objects outside China with a

focus on how they were circulated and received in a cross-cultural environment. This

approach is in marked contrast to traditional Chinese art history scholarship, which often

concentrates on the production of art objects within their native contexts (Thorp and

Vinograd 2001).

Three kinds of synthesis can be found in this dissertation. Both biographical research

and interpretative analyses are employed. The paucity of published materials about Loo

makes it necessary to reconstruct his life and career through archival materials, especially

his dated correspondence with museums and private collectors. While gathering and

studying a large amount of primary sources, this dissertation attempts to locate Loo in a

larger arena by revealing the epistemological and institutional contexts that framed

“Chinese art”. Loo’s dealing is viewed as a discursive knowledge-producing practice,

where “Chinese art” was organized, produced, distributed, and consumed within the

market-academia-display mechanism (Clunas 1994, Hall 1998). In this light, the word

“framing” in the title serves as a metaphor, suggesting Loo’s role in the construction of a

conceptual framework and a display environment to enhance the value of an object.

According to Foucault, the discursive spaces where knowledge operates are

historically and culturally specific (Foucault 1970, 1972, 1980). Unfortunately, as the

study of many prominent Chinese objects in American museums becomes canonical,

their anchorage in a given historical moment in a changing environment has often been

neglected. The travel of ancient objects from Chinese tombs and temples to modern