Spectres after Marx: Notes on Contemporary Art’s Contiguous Histories
Spectre după Marx: Note despre istorii contigue ale artei contemporane

Summary/Abstract: As the notion of “world art history” becomes a major disciplinary focus in the history of art, we need to be careful not to repeat the hierarchies, presumptions, and prejudices that have long plagued “western” art history. In particular, we should avoid subsuming those histories that used to be called “peripheral,” “marginal,” or “non-western” within canonical narratives if we want to recognize the importance of those “peripheral” histories. This paper turns to the work of several contemporary art works to examine how artists themselves have proposed alternative models for reimagining global art histories. These are models based not on the subsumption of one history or discourse into another, but on their contiguity. Indeed, the articulation and aesthetic of contiguous histories may prove an important means for retracing the connections, rather than simply the differences, between post-communism, post-colonialism, and art histories after 1989.

• Details
• Contents