Contemporary Art and Anthropology: Shared Experiences

Abstract

Over 20 years ago, in his essay The Artist as Ethnographer?, American critic and art historian Hal Foster, identified an “ethnographic turn” in art. Drawing on the work of anthropologist James Clifford, particularly his concept of “ethnographic surrealism”, the author confirmed and even amplified what would become a commonplace theme in the art world. Anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles, along with the critical works initiated in the field of social science and humanities in the 1980...