The course will critically review processes of globalisation, immigration and the application or multiple cultural sources -- from Classical Art, to the context of Contemporary Art, with a special attention given to cross-cultural and trans-cultural encounter. On one hand, we shall discuss art theories that developed in Asia over the centuries (ink painting, woodblock printing etc,) while re-examining local values and their changes consequential from the encounter with Western culture. We will examine the assimilation of Greek and Buddhist sculpturing traditions;  We shall consider theories and practices in Asian painting that occurred after the encounter with European visual culture, from the 15th c. onwards, like Nanban Art; Porcelain and faience – cross-cultural influences in tableware; Introduction of photography to Japan and China over the 19th c.; We shall consider the great international exhibitions of the late 19th c. vis-à-vis contemporary art biennales. We will examine approaches to East-Asian art, curatorial rationale, and the methods by which such encounter is articulated for the viewer who is (nearly exclusively) defined as a Western viewer; we shall examine activist models and critical approaches for intervention in political ideologies and local structures in reference to global processes; we shall discuss colonial experience on one hand, and post-colonial conditions on the other and their respective impact on these issues; And finally we will look at the influence of global capitalist processes on the art market, and the reactions to such globalization.