American Art as Cultural Hegemony: 1945–1989

Abstract

This anthology examines recent practices in art-making and exhibition-making under the rubric of “American Art in Asia.” American Art from Asia would be rather suitable as our artists and art practices are freely moving between Asia and other regions. A foremost question is why the topic of American art in Asia was chosen: what constitutes “American” art and what are the geopolitical boundaries of “Asia”? After World War II, American art gained cultural hegemony in East, West, and South Asia, as shown in recent exhibitions such as Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s, organized by the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, in 2020. 1 However, the major American art movements of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and Pop Art received a mixed reception in different parts of the world, complicated by a diverse range of cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious inflections. Is there a notion of “American art” from Asia that is distinct from contemporary art or modern art? 2