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Meet Our Fellows

Dr. Birgitta AUGUSTIN

Curator of Chinese Art
Museum für Asiatische Kunst
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin)

Fellowship Project

Dr. Birgitta Augustin spent six months (November 2016 – April 2017) at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, where she conducted research on works related to Zhang Yu (1283–1350) in the collection.

Biography

Dr. Birgitta Augustin is currently Curator of Chinese art at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and was formerly the Associate Curator of Asian art and Acting Head of the Department of the Arts of Asia and the Islamic World at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Prior to taking up her position at the DIA, she was a Research Associate in the Asian Art Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, with research interest focusing on the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy of the Yuan dynasty.

Recent Development and Achievement

    Dr. Birgitta Augustin is currently working on the Mochan Shanzhuang Collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, and on exhibitions on Jinshixue (2025) and Wen Zhengming & Co (2025/2026).

Selected Publication(s)

  • Augustin, B. (2024). Narrative construction and storytelling: The Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu – a case study. Monumenta Serica, 72 (2), 421–465.
  • Augustin, B. (2024). The Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu: A scroll painting with fundamental issues. Artibus Asiae, 84 (2), 117–146.
  • Augustin, B. (2024). Qian Xuan Pounding the Balustrade: Multivalent Views of Displaced Scholars and Dejected Poets in Wang Xizhi Watching Geese. Archives of Asian Art, 74 (1), 1–36.
  • Translation by Song Jialin 宋佳霖 of Birgitta Augustin (愛古心) “Listening to the Rain: The Collective Commemoration of Lu Shanfu’s ‘Tingyulou’ through Poetry and Calligraphy” (聽雨：盧山甫“聽雨樓”的詩卷題寫與集體紀懷), originally published in the Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, Volume 49 (2020), pp. 345-416. Re-published in Chinese in Zhongwai luntan 中外論壇, “Song Ming wenxue huitong zhuanhao” 宋明文學會通專號 (special issue on “Literature in the Song-Ming Transition”), 2 (2024), pp. 139-194, Liu Zhongxing ed. 劉中興. Shanghai guji chubanshe.
  • Augustin, B. (2023). Strength and Challenges – 17th century Chinese painting in the Mochan shanzhuang collection in Berlin. Arts of Asia, (Winter), 34–45.
  • Augustin, B. (2022). Chinese Art in Context. The New Presentations of Chinese Art in the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in the Humboldt Forum. Orientations, 53(2), 34–43.
  • Augustin, B. (2021). By invitation. Curator’s choice series. ‘Like stars seen on the bottom of deep wells’: Recalling a Shakyamuni in Detroit. Orientations, 52(1), 74–76.
  • Augustin, B. (2020). Listening to the Rain: The Collective Commemoration of Lu Shanfu’s ‘Tingyulou’ through Poetry and Calligraphy. Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, Volume 49, 345–416
  • Augustin, B. (2017). Wang Xizhi’s Letter Kuaixue shiqing and Its Reception in the Yuan Dynasty, National Palace Museum Research Quarterly 35(1), 133–179.
  • Augustin, B. (2016). Heritage and Identity: Korean Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Arts of Asia, Sep/Oct (2016): 110–123.
  • Augustin, B. (2016). Tradition, Innovation, Identity: The Extension and Reinstallation of the Korean Art Collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts – Challenges and Opportunities. In NMK 2016 Museum Network Fellowship Colloquium Research Papers, Seoul: National Museum of Korea (2016): 237–249.
  • Augustin, B. (2015). Embroidering Immortality: A Korean Folding Screen with Ten Symbols of Longevity. In Elegant Gathering in a Scholar’s Garden Studies in East Asian Art in Honor of Jeong-hee Lee-Kalisch, Weimar: Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 2015: 146–151.
  • Augustin, B. and Watanabe, Masako (2014). Japanese Art at the Time of the Samurai. Detroit Institute of Arts Bulletin, Special issue, vol. 88, nos. 1/4 (March 2014).
  • Augustin, B. (2014). Transforming Power – Art and Arts of Japan’s Warriors. (Together with Masako Watanabe). Detroit Institute of Arts Bulletin, Vol. 88, nos. 1/4 (March 2014): 5–9.
  • Augustin, B. (2014). Nanga: Idealist Painting and the Samurai. Detroit Institute of Arts Bulletin, Vol. 88, nos. 1/4 (March 2014): 87–103.
  • Augustin, B. (2014). Japan’s Warriors as Rulers, Patrons and Artists. Orientations, Vol. 45, No. 2, 2014: 136–145.
  • Leidy, Denise P. and Augustin, B. (2013). Buddha, Deva, or Devotee: A Sculpture from Xiangtangshan in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Orientations, 44(7), 66–69. (Translated into Chinese for 美成在久 Orientations, 1 (2014), 64–69.
  • Augustin, B. (2012). The Portrait of Yi Jehyeon, Korean Scholar of the fourteenth century. National Museum Korea 2012 Museum Network Fellowship Research Papers. Seoul: The National Museum of Korea, 70–85.
  • Augustin, B. (2012). Modern Views on Old Histories: Zhang Yu’s and Huang Gongwang’s Encounter with Qian Xuan. Arts Asiatiques, 67, 63–76.
  • Augustin, B. (2010). Sparse Trees and Pavilion: A Fan Painting by Wang Meng (ca. 1308–1385). The Metropolitan Museum Journal, No. 45, 83–90.
  • Augustin, B. (2010). Eight Daoist Immortals in the Yuan Dynasty: Origin of the Group and its Iconography. Orientations, 41(6), 81–87.
  • Augustin, B. (2010). Sparse Trees and Pavilion: A Fan Painting by Wang Meng (ca. 1308 – 1385). The Metropolitan Museum Journal, No. 45 (2010): 83–90.
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