Art History in the Wake of the Global Turn


Book Description

With globalization steadily reshaping the cultural landscape, scholars have long called for a full-scale reassessment of art history's largely Eurocentric framework. This collection of case studies and essays, the latest in the Clark Studies in the Visual Arts series, brings together voices from various disciplinary and theoretical backgrounds, each proposing ways to remap, decenter, and reorient what is often assumed to be a unified field. Rather than devise a one-size-fits-all strategy for what has long been a divided and disjointed terrain, these authors and artists reframe the inherent challenges of the global--most notably geographic, political, aesthetic, and linguistic differences--as productive starting points for study. As the book demonstrates, approaching art history from such alternative perspectives rewrites some of the most basic narratives, from the origins of representation to the beginnings of the "modern" to the very history of globalization and its effects. Distributed for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute




Art History in a Global Context


Book Description

Presents a clear and comprehensive introduction to the evolving discipline of global art studies This volume examines how art historians, critics, and artists revisit art from ancient times through to the early modern period as well as the ways in which contemporary objects are approached through the lens of global contact, exchange, networks, and trade routes. It assists students who actively seek to understand "global art history" and the discipline beyond the founding Western canons. The first section of Art History in a Global Context: Methods, Themes and Approaches explores how themes related to globalization are framing the creation, circulation, reception, and study of art today. The second section examines how curators, scholars, artists, and critics have challenged the Eurocentric canon through works of art, writings, exhibitions, biennials, large-scale conferences, and the formation of global networks. The third section is designed to help students look forward by exploring how art history in a global context is beginning to extend beyond the contemporary condition to understand the meaning, conditions, and impacts of exchange across borders and among artists in earlier periods. Presents a historiography of global art histories in academic, museological, and exhibition projects Written by a collection of authors from different linguistic, cultural, geographic, generational, and disciplinary perspectives Aids students in understanding “global art history” and the discipline beyond the founding Western canons Provides a set of case studies to bring to life methodologies being employed in the field Features contributors from the program of the Getty Foundation and the College Art Association International Committee’s project Art History in a Global Context is an ideal choice for upper-level undergraduate and entry level graduate art students. It can also be used as a teaching tool, or as models for case studies in different formats.




The Global Turn


Book Description

Deploying interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives that speak to interconnected global dimensions is critical if one’s work is to remain relevant and applicable to the emerging global-scale issues of our time. The Global Turn is a guide for students and scholars across all areas of the social sciences and humanities who wish to embark upon global-studies research projects. The authors demonstrate how the global can be studied from a local perspective and vice versa. Global processes manifest at multiple transnational, regional, national, and local levels—interconnected dimensions that are mutually constitutive. This book walks the reader through the steps of thinking like a global scholar in theoretical, methodological, and practical terms, explaining the implications of global perspectives for research design.




New Histories of Art in the Global Postwar Era


Book Description

This book maps key moments in the history of postwar art from a global perspective. The reader is introduced to a new globally oriented approach to art, artists, museums and movements of the postwar era (1945–70). Specifically, this book bridges the gap between historical artistic centers, such as Paris and New York, and peripheral loci. Through case studies, previously unknown networks, circulations, divides and controversies are brought to light. From the development of Ethiopian modernism, to the showcase of Brazilian modernity, this book provides readers with a new set of coordinates and a reassessment of well-trodden art historical narratives around modernism. This book will be of interest to scholars in art historiography, art history, exhibition and curatorial studies, modern art and globalization.




In and Out of View


Book Description

In and Out of View models an expansion in how censorship is discursively framed. Contributors from diverse backgrounds, including artists, art historians, museum specialists, and students, address controversial instances of art production and reception from the mid-20th century to the present in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Their essays, interviews, and statements invite consideration of the shifting contexts, values, and needs through which artwork moves in and out of view. At issue are governmental restrictions and discursive effects, including erasure and distortion resulting from institutional policies, canonical processes, and interpretive methods. Crucial considerations concerning death/violence, authoritarianism, (neo)colonialism, global capitalism, labor, immigration, race, religion, sexuality, activism/social justice, disability, campus speech, and cultural destruction are highlighted. The anthology-a thought-provoking resource for students and scholars in art history, museum and cultural studies, and creative practices-represents a timely and significant contribution to the literature on censorship.




Can Art History be Made Global?


Book Description

The book responds to the challenge of the global turn in the humanities from the perspective of art history. A global art history, it argues, need not follow the logic of economic globalization nor seek to bring the entire world into its fold. Instead, it draws on a theory of transculturation to explore key moments of an art history that can no longer be approached through a facile globalism. How can art historical analysis theorize relationships of connectivity that have characterized cultures and regions across distances? How can it meaningfully handle issues of commensurability or its absence among cultures? By shifting the focus of enquiry to South Asia, the five meditations that make up this book seek to translate intellectual insights of experiences beyond Euro–America into globally intelligible analyses.




Art in Theory


Book Description

A ground-breaking new anthology in the Art in Theory series, offering an examination of the changing relationships between the West and the wider world in the field of art and material culture Art in Theory: The West in the World is a ground-breaking anthology that comprehensively examines the relationship of Western art to the art and material culture of the wider world. Editors Paul Wood and Leon Wainwright have included over 350 texts, some of which appear in English for the first time. The anthologized texts are presented in eight chronological parts, which are then subdivided into key themes appropriate to each historical era. The majority of the texts are representations of changing ideas about the cultures of the world by European artists and intellectuals, but increasingly, as the modern period develops, and especially as colonialism is challenged, a variety of dissenting voices begin to claim their space, and a counter narrative to western hegemony develops. Over half the book is devoted to 20th and 21st century materials, though the book’s unique selling point is the way it relates the modern globalization of art to much longer cultural histories. As well as the anthologized material, Art in Theory: The West in the World contains: A general introduction discussing the scope of the collection Introductory essays to each of the eight parts, outlining the main themes in their historical contexts Individual introductions to each text, explaining how they relate to the wider theoretical and political currents of their time Intended for a wide audience, the book is essential reading for students on courses in art and art history. It will also be useful to specialists in the field of art history and readers with a general interest in the culture and politics of the modern world.




Circulations in the Global History of Art


Book Description

The project of global art history calls for balanced treatment of artifacts and a unified approach. This volume emphasizes questions of transcultural encounters and exchanges as circulations. It presents a strategy that highlights the processes and connections among cultures, and also responds to the dynamics at work in the current globalized art world. The editors’ introduction provides an account of the historical background to this approach to global art history, stresses the inseparable bond of theory and practice, and suggests a revaluation of materialist historicism as an underlying premise. Individual contributions to the book provide an overview of current reflection and research on issues of circulation in relation to global art history and the globalization of art past and present. They offer a variety of methods and approaches to the treatment of different periods, regions, and objects, surveying both questions of historiography and methodology and presenting individual case studies. An 'Afterword' by James Elkins gives a critique of the present project. The book thus deliberately leaves discussion open, inviting future responses to the large questions it poses.




Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan


Book Description

This volume explores the changing process of evaluating objects during the period of Japan’s rapid modernization. Originally published in Japanese, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan looks at the approach toward object-based research across the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods, which were typically kept separate, and elucidates the intellectual continuities between these eras. Focusing on the top-down effects of the professionalizing of academia in the political landscape of Meiji Japan, which had advanced by attacking earlier modes of scholarship by antiquarians, Suzuki shows how those outside the government responded, retracted, or challenged new public rules and values. He explores the changing process of evaluating objects from the past in tandem with the attitudes and practices of antiquarians during the period of Japan’s rapid modernization. He shows their roots in the intellectual sphere of the late Tokugawa period while also detailing how they adapted to the new era. Suzuki also demonstrates that Japan’s antiquarians had much in common with those from Europe and the United States. Art historian Maki Fukuoka provides an introduction to the English translation that highlights the significance of Suzuki’s methodological and intellectual analyses and shows how his ideas will appeal to specialists and nonspecialists alike.




Transnational Perspectives on Feminism and Art, 1960-1985


Book Description

Transnational Perspecives on Feminism and Art, 1960–1985 is a collection of essential essays that bring transnational feminist praxis into conversation with histories of feminist art in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. The artistic practices and processes examined within these pages all centre on gender and sexual politics as they variously intersect with race, class, sovereignty, Indigeneity, citizenship, and migration at particular historical moments and within specific geopolitical contexts. The book’s central premise is that reconsidering this period from transnational feminist perspectives will enable new thinking about the critical commonalities and differences across heterogeneous and geographically dispersed practices that have contributed to the complex and multifaceted relationship between feminism and art today. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, cultural studies, visual culture, material culture, and gender studies.