Claire Roberts, BA, MA (Art history and Chinese), PhD (Chinese history)
Research Fellow, Division of Pacific and Asian History
Email: claire.roberts@anu.edu.au
Biographical Statement
After learning Chinese at secondary school, I studied Chinese language, painting and art history at the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (1978-81). After graduating in Arts from the University of Melbourne, majoring in Chinese and art history (BA, 1983; MA 1987), I worked as Curator at the Museum of Chinese-Australian History, Melbourne (1986-88) and since then as Senior Curator, Asian Decorative Arts and Design the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. In 2005 I graduated from the ANU with a PhD from the Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Since 1986 I have curated many exhibitions on subjects relating to North Asian visual culture and have been regular contributor to Art Asia-Pacific, Art & Australia, Art Monthly and the TAASA Review.
Research Interests
Chinese visual culture, art history and cultural history, in particular the period post 1800s; contemporary Chinese art; Chinese photography; the photography of China; Chinese textiles and dress; North Asian art, decorative arts and design; heritage studies; museum and curatorial studies.
Key Publications
- (ed. with Geremie R. Barmé) 'The Great Wall of China', Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2006.
- (ed. with Michael Brand) 'Earth, spirit, fire: Korean masterpieces of the Chosôn dynasty' Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2000.
- (ed.) 'Evolution & revolution: Chinese dress 1700s to now'
Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 1997.
- 'Questions of authenticity: Huang Binhong and the Palace Museum' China Heritage Quarterly (no. 10, June) http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/, 2007.
- 'Hedda Morrison’s Jehol' East Asian History 22 (December), pp. 1-128, 2001.
- 'Tradition and modernity: the life and art of Pan Tianshou (1897-1971)' East Asian History 15/16 (June/December), pp 67-96, 1998.
- 'Hedda Morrison's photographs of Peking 1933-46' East Asian History 4 (1992), pp. 81-104, 1992.
Career Highlights
Council member, Australia-China Council, 2006-09;
History of Art Fellow, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution Washington D.C, 2003;
Curatorial adviser on Chinese art to the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, in 1993, 1996 and 1999;
Bunkacho (Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs) Fellow, Crafts Gallery, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1996;
Committee member, Committee on Taxation Incentives for the Arts, Department of Communications and the Arts, 1995-200;
Curatorial Fellow, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Arts Administrators' Exchange, Shanghai Museum,1989-90;
Founding Committee, The Asian Arts Society of Australia, 1991.
