Description
Book SynopsisPrompting a reevaluation of canonical understandings of twentieth century art history,
Mapping Modernisms provides an analysis of how indigenous artists and art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas became recognized as modern.
Trade Review"The wide-ranging and meticulously researched essays in
Mapping Modernisms focus on indigenous artists from Inuit, Zulu, Māori, Pueblo, and Aboriginal cultures, among others, around the world. . . . What emerges from
Mapping Modernisms is that Modernism was not a process of diffusion from Western centers to non-Western peripheries, as it is traditionally constructed in Western narratives, but rather a complex web of mutual inuences and exchanges across the globe." -- Naomi Polonsky * Hyperallergic *
"
Mapping Modernisms is an excellent addition to any collection exploring the history of modernity and the decolonisation of modern art histories, and proposes a new conceptualization of modernity that would benefit any collection looking to re-examine its role in post-colonialism." -- Marianne R. Williams * ARLIS/NA Reviews *
"
Mapping Modernisms is a concise and carefully compiled selection of essays and art works from across historical and geographical spectrums, which challenge the relationship between postcolonialism and metahistorical concepts of modernity." -- Natalie Ilsley * Visual Studies *
"Dispelling assumptions of the past, the authors reveal the artist to be as cognizant of the exigencies of their complicated histories and lives, as they are in command of their expressive forms.
Mapping Modernism sheds much needed light onto the artistic production of modernist artists living in post- and neocolonial countries in the early twentieth century." -- Cécile Rose Ganteaume * Transmotion *
“
Mapping Modernisms keys in to several recent trends in cultural studies and art history, including transnationalism, global Indigeneity, and definitions of modernism and modernity. It addresses all of them in productively thought-provoking—and overtly political—ways. This is a volume with an agenda that is both timely and overdue, and, as their comprehensive and rousing introduction makes clear, the editors know it.” -- Louise Siddons * Canadian Journal of History *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix
General Editors' Foreword / Ruth B. Phillips and Nicholas Thomas xiii
Preface / Elizabeth Harney and Ruth B. Phillips xv
Introduction. Inside Modernity: Indigeneity, Coloniality, Modernisms / Elizabeth Harney and Ruth B. Phillips 1
Part I. Modern Values
1. Reinventing Zulu Tradition: The Modernism of Zizwezenyanga Qwabe's Figurative Relief Panels / Sandra Klopper 33
2. "Hooked Forever on Primitive Peoples": James Houston and the Transformation of "Eskimo Handicrafts" to Inuit Art / Heather Igloliorte 62
3. Making Pictures on Baskets: Modern Indian Painting in an Expanded Field / Bill Anthes 91
4. An Intersection: Bill Reid, Henry Speck, and the Mapping of Modern Northwest Coast Art / Karen Duffek 110
5. Modernism on Display: Negotiating Value in Exhibitions of Māori Art, 1958–1973 / Damian Skinner 138
Part II. Modern Identities
6. "Artist of PNG": Mathias Kauage and Melanesian Modernism / Nicholas Thomas 163
7. Modernism and the Art of Albert Namatjira / Ian McLean 187
8. Cape Dorset Cosmopolitans: Making "Local" Prints in Global Modernity / Norman Vorano 209
9. Natural Synthesis: Art, Theory, and the Politics of Decolonization in Mid-Twentieth-Century Nigeria / Chika Okeke-Agulu 235
Part III. Modern Mobilities
10. Being Modern, Becoming Native: George Morrison's Surrealist Journey Home / W. Jackson Rushing III 259
11. Falling into the World: The Global Art World of Aloï Pilioko and Nicolaï Michoutouchkine / Peter Brunt 282
12. Constellations and Coordinates: Repositioning Postwar Paris in Stories of African Modernisms / Elizabeth Harney 304
13. Conditions of Engagement: Mobility, Modernism, and Modernity in the Art of Jackson Hlungwani and Sydney Kumalo / Anitra Nettleton 335
14. The Modernist Lens of Lutterodt Studios / Erin Haney 357
Bibliography 377
Contributors 409
Index 415
