Nixi Cura

Honorary Research Fellow; co-founder of the Arts of China Consortium
Email: ncura@christies.edu

Nixi Cura read East Asian Studies at Yale University, then specialised in Chinese painting and Buddhist art, with a minor in Romanesque art, at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Her current research interests include Qing art, especially during the Qianlong reign (1736-1795), collecting and antiquarian practices in the Qing, Republican and Manchukuo periods, and contemporary Chinese visual culture.

Research

  • Qing dynasty (1644-1911) painting and material culture
  • Qing bannerman and Manchu cultural history
  • Qing archaeology and tomb practice
  • Collecting and antiquarian practices during the Qing, Republican (1911-1949) and Manchukuo (1932-1945) periods
  • Ceramics of the Republican period (1911-1949)
  • Contemporary Chinese visual culture

Teaching

Arts of China (MLitt, PgDip and Certificate programmes)

Administration

  • Course Director, Arts of China, Christie's Education London
  • Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Art History, University of Glasgow
  • Secretary, Arts of China Consortium

Select Publications

Cura, N. Forthcoming. ‘Seals as Artistic Practice in China’. 'Chinese Seals: Tradition and Innovation' (2012) conference proceedings, British Museum, London.

Cura, N. Forthcoming. 'Martial values in painting: Chinese bannerman painters at the Qing court'. Routledge edited volume on Chinese and Indian warfare, London.

Cura, N. 2012. On Prints and Multiples’, in Lisa Claypool (ed), China’s Imperial Modern: The Painter’s Craft, Edmonton.

Cura, N. 2003. 'A "cultural biography" of the Admonitions scroll: the Qianlong reign, 1735-1795' in S. McCausland (ed), Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll: Ideals of Etiquette, Art & Empire from Early China, London.
Cura, N. 2003. 'High art, Luo art' in Luo Brothers: Welcome the World Famous Brand, Schenectady, NY.

Cura, N. (ed). 1996-present. Arts of China Consortium virtual library.

Select Papers

Giuseppe Castiglione: Jesuit court painter to the Qing emperors, 2013. Asia House, London.

Finger painting as Qing contemporary art, 2012. In ‘A Connective History of Qing Art: Visuality, Images and Imaginaries’, University of Hong Kong.

Luo Zhenyu, Qing loyalism and art values, 2012. University of Zürich.

Soper and Chinese pictorial representation, 2011. In the panel 'Revisiting Alexander Soper', Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Meeting, Honolulu (paper presenter and panel organizer).

Early 20th-century 'imperial' porcelain and ideals of empire, 2010. In the panel 'China and the West: The Reception of Chinese Art across Cultures from the 15th Century to the Present', Association of Art Historians, Glasgow.

Martial values in painting: Chinese bannerman painters at the Qing court, 2009. In 'War and Devastation in the Qing and Ottoman Empires', University of the Bosporus, Istanbul.

Nixi serves concurrently as Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and co-founded the Arts of China Consortium.