Seo, Audrey Yoshiko

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SEO, Audrey Yoshiko

PERSONAL: Female. Education: University of Kansas, M.A., 1990, Ph.D., 1997.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Modlin Center for the Arts, Department of Art and Art History, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173.

CAREER: Author and educator. University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, adjunct professor of art history; College of William and Mary, adjunct instructor in anthropology; Virginia Commonwealth University, assistant professor of Asian art.

MEMBER: Costume Society of America.

WRITINGS:

(With Stephen Addiss) The Art of Twentieth-CenturyZen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Masters, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 1998.

Contributor to volumes such as How to Look at Japanese Art, by Stephen Addiss, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1996, and Zen No Sho: The Calligraphy of Fukushima Keido Roshi, edited by Jason M. Wirth, Clear Light Books (Santa Fe, NM), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: For author and professor Audrey Yoshiko Seo, the perpetual beauty of art can be found in places as close and modern as contemporary fashion and as distant and deeply philosophical as the works of ancient Zen masters. At the University of Richmond, Seo has taught classes in fashion as art. "Clothing has amazing qualities that give form to aesthetic, which gives form to beauty," she stated in a profile by Jane Dryer on the University of Richmond Web site. "They are sculpture; three-dimensional art in their own right," Fashion serves as a "reflection of changing times, politically, economically, socially," Seo also remarked to Dryer.

Seo explores the artistic merits of Japanese gardens in her contribution to Stephen Addiss's How to Look at Japanese Art. The book provides basic introductory commentary on Japanese sculpture, painting, ceramics, calligraphy, prints, and gardens, along with questions, quizzes, and commentary designed to assist the beginning viewer in developing a working knowledge and appreciation of Japanese art. In The Art of Twentieth-Century Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Masters, Seo and coauthor Addiss provide a brief historical overview of Zen Buddhism in Japan, then explore the Zen artwork of fourteen prominent Japanese Zen masters. The book serves as a catalogue of a touring exhibit of the same name that originated at the Marsh Art Gallery at the University of Richmond and was described as, "a rich display of artistic variations on traditional Zen" by Lucia S. Chen in Library Journal.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Pages, November 30, 2000, Phyllis Louise Harris, "MIA's Zen Art Exhibition Offers Much to Ponder," p. 10.

Library Journal, February 1, 1999, Lucia S. Chen, review of The Art of Twentieth-Century Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Masters, p. 85.

Publishers Weekly, April 1, 1996, review of How toLook at Japanese Art, p. 68.