Introduction: The World and World-Making in Art

Abstract

This special issue of Humanities Research offers a selection of papers presented at the international conference 'The and World-Making in Art: Connectivities and Differences' held at The Australian National University (ANU) from 11-13 August 2011.1The conference inspired significant interest nationally and internationally and attracted scholars from the United States, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and South America. It formed part of the program organised by the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) at ANU under the overarching theme: 'The and World-Making in the Humanities and the Arts' and complemented other conferences relating to the concept of 'world-making' in history and literature.2 We would like to extend our special thanks to the Head of the HRC, Dr Debjani Ganguly, who suggested we undertake a conference focussing on art and to our co-conveners Zara Stanhope and Jackie Menzies and to Leena Messina and Sharon Komidar for their assistance with both the conference and this special issue of Humanities Research. We also extend our thanks to Professor Paul Pickering and the Editorial Board of Humanities Research for supporting our proposal to publish this special issue of the journal on the topic of 'The and World-Making in Art'.Art historians have often resisted the term 'world art', although the concepts of world literature and world history have been more accepted in the humanities. One of the aims of our conference was to explore key issues in art discourses today, and also to address a central concept of the HRC's theme in invoking an idea of 'beyond a cultural divide' and instead speaking 'to a domain of human connectivity'. We have selected papers which we believe present new and illuminating perspectives on the theme. As Zara Stanhope and Michelle Antoinette argue in their paper in the international journal Art, 'If the term World Art designates a flux-a multidisciplinary synthesis of history, critical analysis and practice-the notion of world-making describes processes involved in its generation.'3The conference was organised around four key sub-themes, which are represented in the selection of papers included in this volume:1. World-Making and the Idea of 'Global Art'2. Cosmopolitanism3. Indigenous World-Making in Art4. Crossing Borders: Artists, Institutions, Exhibitions and AudiencesWhile there were a number of very fine papers at the conference on the historical dimensions of 'world-making' in art, we have concentrated in this publication on what Terry Smith has called (in assessing the 1950s as prefiguring the roots of this change) the shift from 'modern to contemporary' in art. The papers selected for this special issue of Humanities Research under the four sub-themes focus on the critical period from the post-World War II era to the present. They also examine changing definitions of art in a time of increasing globalisation and of dramatic economic, cultural and geopolitical change.As Stanhope and Antoinette state in their essay in Art: 'The conference proceeded from the acknowledged position that in art is a platform for research aiming to challenge the hegemony of EuroAmericentric perspectives or to register alternative world views. Papers were invited to focus on the potential of connections and diversity within world-making, particularly cosmopolitanism, art practice, institutions, exhibitions and audiences crossing borders, and indigenous world-making.' In seeking to explore a number of key issues in art discourses today and speaking to 'a domain of human connectivity' the conference 'generated dialogue on subjects that went beyond geographic, state or cultural communities.'4A key issue of the conference that is reflected in the essays in this volume relates to the critical question in contemporary art discourses as to whether art and art history are now truly global. Our special issue begins with three essays from Smith, Marsha Meskimmon and Ian McLean, which together provide a broader theoretical context for discussion of the practical implications of present-day in art. …