Prehistoric Art in Asia: Neolithic Chinese Art
The identification of art from the periods of prehistory – paleolithic and neolithic (and mesolithic, as well, if you use Honour and Fleming’s The Visual Arts: A History) – depend not on their place nor their date for their periodization, but on the stage of cultural development. To underscore the point that every continent has a prehistory, in an ideal survey (global, of course), alongside the neolithic art of the Ancient Near East and Western Europe, I would present neolithic art from China.
Gardner’s chapter on Chinese Art before 1279 includes a brief section on Yangshao pottery, but unfortunately, it offers little to work with. A search for “Yangshao” on Via turns up several pieces, some of which are publicly accessible, such as this ca. 4000 BCE bottle from the Harvard University Art Museums. In fact, one may turn many places on the internet for further material. Mike Gunther has assembled ceramic and jade from neolithic China on his website, www.art-and-archaeology.com, all linked to the pages of the museums that hold them (but beware- some links are dead). The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has a useful web resource for Chinese art, the Art of Asia, as does the National Gallery of Art, Teaching the Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology. And, as for all periods, one may find useful information at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Timeline of Art History.