Narratives Unfolding: National Art Histories in an Unfinished World

Description

Somewhere between global and local, the nation still lingers as a concept. National art histories continue to be written – some for the first time – while innovative methods and practices redraw the boundaries of these imagined communities. Narratives Unfolding considers the mobility of ideas, transnationalism, and entangled histories in essays that define new ways to see national art in ever-changing nations. Examining works that were designed to reclaim or rethink issues of territory and dispossession, home and exile, contributors to this volume demonstrate that the writing of national art histories is a vital project for intergenerational exchange of knowledge and its visual formations. Essays showcase revealing moments of modern and contemporary art history in Canada, Egypt, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel/Palestine, Romania, Scotland, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, paying particular attention to the agency of institutions such as archives, art galleries, milestone exhibitions, and artist retreats. Old and emergent art cities, including Cairo, Dubai, New York, and Vancouver, are also examined in light of avant-gardism, cosmopolitanism, and migration. Narratives Unfolding is both a survey of current art historical approaches and their connection to the source: art-making and art experience happening somewhere. Cover Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface 1 Introduction 2 Playing Out the “Differences” in “Turkish” Art-Historical Narratives 3 Race, Irishness, and Art History: Margaret Clarke’s Bath Time at the Crèche (1925), Motherhood, and the Matter of Whiteness 4 Problems of Translation: Lyonel Feininger and Gaganendranath Tagore at the Fourteenth Annual Indian Society of Oriental Art Exhibition, Kolkata, India 5 Some Notes on Applying Postcolonial Methodologies to Architectural History Research in Israel/Palestine 6 “Draw Me a Sheep!” Contemporary Responses to the Histories of Art Education, Surrealism, and Psychoanalysis in Egypt 7 Historical Archives and Contemporary Art: The Case of the Umm el-Fahem Gallery in Palestine/Israel 8 Dalriada, the Lordship of the Isles, and the Northern Rim: Decentralizing the Visual Culture of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland 9 New Maps for Networks: Reykjavík Fluxus – A Case of Connections 10 Hitching a Ride: American Know-How in the Engineering of Canadian Photographic Institutions 11 Migratory Affiliations: Contemporary Romanian Art 12 Maraya’s Sisyphean Cart: Twinned Visions of Vancouver and Dubai 13 Urban Art Histories (in Canada) 14 A Stranger in New York 15 Mending Walls: Imagining the Sovereign Subject in Contemporary Exhibition Practices 16 Embodying Sovereignty: Indigenous Women’s Performance Art in Canada Notes Bibliography Contributors Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z