E-Book Overview
Today, contemporary art is a global phenomenon. Biennales, museums, art fairs, galleries, auction houses, academies and audiences for contemporary visual art are all institutions whose presence on a global scale has widened tremendously during the past two decades. Thus, by including contemporary art from non-Western regions, these traditional Western art institutions have not only broadened their scope to a greater extent, but have also been challenged themselves by the new cultural, economic and media world order of globalization. How contemporary art is made 'international' is the subject of this book, tracing as it does developments during the past two decades, while focusing particularly on the mechanisms of 'globality' which are at work in the art world today. The book critically investigates fundamental questions like: What is 'New Internationalism' in contemporary art, and how it affected the art world? How does New Internationalism relate to concepts like ethnicity, aesthetics, standard art history, and new media? And how is New Internationalism, rather paradoxically, furthered to a greater extent by global capitalism than it is by seemingly progressive art projects?
E-Book Content
Globalizing Contemporary Art The art world’s new internationalism Globalizing Contemporary Art The art world’s new internationalism Aarhus University Press Globalizing Contemporary Art © Lotte Philipsen and Aarhus University Press 2010 Cover: Kitte Fennestad Typesetting: Narayana Press Type: Garamond eISBN 978 87 7934 348 1 Aarhus University Press Aarhus Langelandsgade 177 DK – 8200 Aarhus N Copenhagen Tuborgvej 164 DK – 2400 Copenhagen NV www.unipress.dk Published with the financial support of The Aarhus University Research Foundation The Novo Nordisk Foundation Krista & Viggo Petersens Fond Contents Introduction: New Internationalism 7 Chapter 1: The art of old and new internationalism 21 Chapter 2: Exhibiting artistic modernism and modernity 35 Chapter 3: Racial, sexual and aesthetic differences in art 63 Chapter 4: New international influences 89 Chapter 5: Global dimensions of contemporary art 105 Chapter 6: Formally and thematically global dimensions 123 Chapter 7: From art to ethnic politics 147 Conclusion 179 Bibliography 185 Notes 197 Introduction New Internationalism Kassel, Germany, 2007: 1,001 Chinese men and women visited the Documenta 12 art exhibition as a part of the work Fairytale by the artist Ai Weiwei. Apart from the many Chinese visitors, the work consisted of 1,001 restored wooden chairs from the Qing dynasty, which were placed around the exhibition venues for visitors to use. According to the catalogue, the work and its title paid hom‑ age to ‘the Brothers Grimm who wrote the majority of their fairytale collec‑ tion in Kassel between 1812 and 1815.’1 In a fairytale, anything can happen. Magically, people and creatures may transform and move, unrestricted by the laws of physics and logic, and in this respect the art world today resembles a fairytale when compared to the situation a few decades ago. For instance, it is obvious to consider Ai Weiwei’s work as a commentary on the work 7,000 Oak Trees by Joseph Beuys, which was initiated at Documenta 7 in 1982 and completed by the opening of Documenta 8 in 1987. By then 7,000 oak trees had been planted in Kassel.2 Though the strategies of the two works resemble each other, as both have elements of happenings that leave physical evidence, the difference between planting trees and flying in Chinese people and chairs mirrors to some extent the difference between the art world in 1982 and in 2007. The solid grounding of trees that are meant to grow for centuries and permanently be part of Kassel has now been replaced by a brief visit by people. Whereas Beuys was himself German, and thus ‘at home’ in K