Joan Kee
Biographic Data
| ID | 1165079 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joan Kee |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joan |
| FAMILY NAME | Kee |
| SIGNATURE | KEE J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Art History |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8625-8544 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Maoist Currents and Un-American Art Histories
Against a US political landscape marked by rising Sinophobia that mischaracterises any expressed affinity to China as ‘Maoist’, the question of how Maoism appears, operates, and circulates as a key force in American art is long overdue. I argue that a direct engagement with Maoism activates an ‘un-American’ art history better equipped to sustain the possibility of self-determination that the experiment known as ‘America’ suggests. Works such as E…
Roundtable on Warhol v. Goldsmith
Why Afro Asia
If postcolonial thinking involves considering art history for a "global majority," a term invoked by an astonishingly wide range of sources from advocates of Zambian independence in pre-1964 Rhodesia to champions of anti-racist language in post-2020 London, the concept of Afro Asia assumes special urgency. Suggestive not only of the world's population, of which over three-quarters call Asia and Africa home, but also of a supermajority deprived of…
What is Radical
What does it mean to think and act radically, and how does this relate to forms of radicalism connected to earlier moments, for example, in the 20th century? What can be the role of radical art and scholarship under the conditions of late capitalism? More generally, how can art and artists serve the ongoing struggle for social justice and the agendas of emancipatory social change? Finally, what kinds of art criticism and art historical scholarshi…
Why Art and Law
Witness Blanket is a large-scale, three-dimensional work assembled from almost nine hundred objects sourced from First Nations individuals, groups, churches, government buildings, treatment centers
The Animal Question via Art and Law
Since at least the late 1960s, artistic creation has increasingly called upon its audiences to consider the acceptability of certain actions in ways that law cannot. Based on four examples carrying especial weight in international artistic circles due to their reliance on animal actors—Kim Jones’s Rat Piece (1976), Yukinori Yanagi’s World Flag Ant Farm (1993), Xu Bing’s A Case Study of Transference (1993-1994) and Huang Yong Ping’s Theater of the…
Corroborators in Arms
Looking at the unseen viewer with varying expressions ranging from gentle bemusement to simmering irritation, four men sit around a table draped with a US flag (Fig. 1). Each are portrayed with stereotypes of their respective ethnic and racial backgrounds.1 Irish Catholic Joe Goode eats mackerel while Jewish Larry Bell holds a bagel. Ed Bereal, an African American, holds, or rather, brandishes, a slice of watermelon. In the far right, Ron Miyashi…
Why Chinese Paintings Are So Large
The property of contemporary Chinese art
Signaling China’s rise as a major soft power, the global emergence of contemporary Chinese art from the mid-1990s also reflected sea changes in how Chinese citizens internalized concepts of private property. Although Communist economic systems sought to end private property by collectivizing the means of production, the liberalization of property ownership in the 1990s and 2000s encouraged an altogether different approach to artistic production, …
Cultural Apropriation
Let's start with a proposal: I prefer translation
Apropriação cultural
.
Orders of Law in the One Year Performances of Tehching Hsieh
In 1978, Tehching Hsieh began the first of his One Year Performances, in which he subjected himself to conditions of extreme deprivation or banality over the course of a single year. Accompanying each performance were voluntary written pledges to uphold various behavioral restrictions, the language and format of which strongly resembled that commonly used in legally binding contracts. The lengths that Hsieh took to fulfill his obligations recalle…
The Measure of the World
Scale to Size
Scale hides in plain sight. As much is made clear in Cildo Meireles's photograph of Southern Cross, the work made by the Brazilian artist between 1969 and 1970 (plate 1). Nine millimetres square, the wooden cube is so apparently tiny as to make it impossible not to think initially of its size. But its position on the tip of a finger calls specific attention to its scale, or rather to the experience that arises out of seeing the cube resting preca…
Towards Law as an Artistic Medium
Comprised entirely of police surveillance footage initially used to prosecute violators of anti-sodomy laws, William E. Jones’s 2007 film Tearoom embodies the potential value of regarding law itself an artistic medium. The viewing experience it offers contends that when we regard images as artworks, that is, as both a separate, imagined realm and as a specific configuration of materials free of any preordained practical function, we are then most…
Contemporary Art in Early Colonial Korea
Connoisseurship and Its Potential in Matters of Copyright
Among the most persistent and difficult problems in the field of copyright law is determining whether copying has actually occurred. This article responds to this challenge by proposing that judges and juries consider practices used in disciplines revolving around the close and methodical viewing of visual objects. Of special interest is connoisseurship, long employed by art historians, curators, and collectors to adjudicate the origins, provenan…
Why Chinese Paintings Are So Large
Among the most outstanding characteristics of recent painting in China is its size, an aspect some view as a function of individual volition or of market forces. Yet the question raised by the matter of large size has less to do with the absolute physical dimensions of a work than about the kinds of relationships initiated by these dimensions as well as by the relativisation of size. In short, the question of why Chinese paintings are so large is…
Contemporaneity as Calculus
How do we write a history of contemporary art? Globalisation is frequently identified as a major characteristic of contemporary art since the late 1980s, yet it remains wedded to notions of progress and innovation, as well as to a centre-versus-periphery world-view that presumes the belatedness of those living and working in the alleged margins. This article proposes rates of change as an alternative model through which to rethink contemporaneity…
Introduction Contemporary Southeast Asian Art
In the past decade, contemporary art has become one of art history's most urgent questions. The question has special urgency in light of art's globalisation, a phenomenon that might be usefully analysed through the works identified as ‘Contemporary Southeast Asian art’. Compared with its East Asian counterparts, Southeast Asian art has been relatively invisible in discussions of contemporaneity, yet the circumstances of this lack of visibility ha…
The Curious Case of Contemporary Ink Painting
Among contemporary art's blind spots, few are as apparent as contemporary ink painting. Despite accounting for a considerable proportion of art making in East and Southeast Asia as duly reflected by a large and enthusiastic collector base, ink painting rarely figures in chronicles of contemporary art. Critics periodically expound on what they see as the medium's state of crisis or rebirth, while historians increasingly recognize the medium's cont…
Bahc Yiso
Kimsooja
Trouble in New Utopia
Research Article| August 01 2004 Trouble in New Utopia Joan Kee Joan Kee Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google positions (2004) 12 (3): 667–686. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-12-3-667 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Joan Kee; Trouble in New Utopia. positions 1 August 2004; 12 (3): 667–686. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-12-3-667 Download citation file…
Guest Editor's Introduction
Since the late 1980s there has been a steady rise in the visibility of documentation concerning the body of work referenced as "contemporary Asian art."It has taken place on an institutional level, with the construction of museums such as the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (which opened in 1999) concentrating entirely on modern and contemporary Asian art, and the proliferation of university or foundation-sponsored symposiums devoted to the subject.Exam…
Introduction Contemporary Southeast Asian Art
In the past decade, contemporary art has become one of art history's most urgent questions. The question has special urgency in light of art's globalisation, a phenomenon that might be usefully analysed through the works identified as ‘Contemporary Southeast Asian art’. Compared with its East Asian counterparts, Southeast Asian art has been relatively invisible in discussions of contemporaneity, yet the circumstances of this lack of visibility ha…
Contemporaneity as Calculus
How do we write a history of contemporary art? Globalisation is frequently identified as a major characteristic of contemporary art since the late 1980s, yet it remains wedded to notions of progress and innovation, as well as to a centre-versus-periphery world-view that presumes the belatedness of those living and working in the alleged margins. This article proposes rates of change as an alternative model through which to rethink contemporaneity…
The Image Significant
Essay| August 01 1999 The Image Significant: Identity in Contemporary Korean Video Art Joan Kee Joan Kee Joan Kee is a freelance critic who has written extensively on contemporary Asian art. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (1999) 27 (1): 8–10. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.1999.27.1.8 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Tw…
Global Entertainment
Review| June 01 2000 Global Entertainment The Worlds of Nam June Paik, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York, February 11-April 26, 2000The Worlds of Nam June Paik, by John G. Hanhardt, New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2000, 292 pp./$40.00 (sb) Joan Kee Joan Kee Joan Kee is a freelance critic and will be a fellow at New York University’s International Center for Advanced Studies in 2000-2001. Search for other works by this autho…
Claiming Sites of Independence
The first fifteen minutes of Pak Ch’ŏl-su’s 301/302 (1995) is a veritable melange of stylized poses, lush surroundings, and glances ranging from coy to sullen.Amid an endless sequence of aluminumcountertops and twinkling halogen track lights, the resident of apartment 301 (Pang Un-jin) practices to make her cooking a fine art. Her stylish short hair, fashionable attire, and wary glances, calculated more to penetrate than to seduce, combine to gen…
Inertia Reels
Essay| February 01 2002 Inertia Reels: Mobility in Hong Kong Video Joan Kee Joan Kee Joan Kee is a Center Fellow, International Center for Advanced Studies, at New York University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2002) 29 (4): 8–10. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2002.29.4.8 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter Link…
Reviving the Fantastic
Review| October 01 2002 Reviving the Fantastic Biennale of Sydney, International Festival of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, May 15-Ju ly 14 Joan Kee Joan Kee Joan Keeis a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for the Study of Globalization and Culture at the University of Hong Kong. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2002) 30 (2): 14. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2002.30.2.14 Views Icon Views Artic…
Suh Do-Ho
Trouble in New Utopia
Research Article| August 01 2004 Trouble in New Utopia Joan Kee Joan Kee Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google positions (2004) 12 (3): 667–686. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-12-3-667 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Joan Kee; Trouble in New Utopia. positions 1 August 2004; 12 (3): 667–686. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-12-3-667 Download citation file…
Guest Editor's Introduction
Since the late 1980s there has been a steady rise in the visibility of documentation concerning the body of work referenced as "contemporary Asian art."It has taken place on an institutional level, with the construction of museums such as the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (which opened in 1999) concentrating entirely on modern and contemporary Asian art, and the proliferation of university or foundation-sponsored symposiums devoted to the subject.Exam…
Bahc Yiso
Kimsooja
The Curious Case of Contemporary Ink Painting
Among contemporary art's blind spots, few are as apparent as contemporary ink painting. Despite accounting for a considerable proportion of art making in East and Southeast Asia as duly reflected by a large and enthusiastic collector base, ink painting rarely figures in chronicles of contemporary art. Critics periodically expound on what they see as the medium's state of crisis or rebirth, while historians increasingly recognize the medium's cont…
Contemporaneity as Calculus
How do we write a history of contemporary art? Globalisation is frequently identified as a major characteristic of contemporary art since the late 1980s, yet it remains wedded to notions of progress and innovation, as well as to a centre-versus-periphery world-view that presumes the belatedness of those living and working in the alleged margins. This article proposes rates of change as an alternative model through which to rethink contemporaneity…
Introduction Contemporary Southeast Asian Art
In the past decade, contemporary art has become one of art history's most urgent questions. The question has special urgency in light of art's globalisation, a phenomenon that might be usefully analysed through the works identified as ‘Contemporary Southeast Asian art’. Compared with its East Asian counterparts, Southeast Asian art has been relatively invisible in discussions of contemporaneity, yet the circumstances of this lack of visibility ha…
Connoisseurship and Its Potential in Matters of Copyright
Among the most persistent and difficult problems in the field of copyright law is determining whether copying has actually occurred. This article responds to this challenge by proposing that judges and juries consider practices used in disciplines revolving around the close and methodical viewing of visual objects. Of special interest is connoisseurship, long employed by art historians, curators, and collectors to adjudicate the origins, provenan…
Why Chinese Paintings Are So Large
Among the most outstanding characteristics of recent painting in China is its size, an aspect some view as a function of individual volition or of market forces. Yet the question raised by the matter of large size has less to do with the absolute physical dimensions of a work than about the kinds of relationships initiated by these dimensions as well as by the relativisation of size. In short, the question of why Chinese paintings are so large is…
Contemporary Art in Early Colonial Korea
Towards Law as an Artistic Medium
Comprised entirely of police surveillance footage initially used to prosecute violators of anti-sodomy laws, William E. Jones’s 2007 film Tearoom embodies the potential value of regarding law itself an artistic medium. The viewing experience it offers contends that when we regard images as artworks, that is, as both a separate, imagined realm and as a specific configuration of materials free of any preordained practical function, we are then most…
The Measure of the World
Scale to Size
Scale hides in plain sight. As much is made clear in Cildo Meireles's photograph of Southern Cross, the work made by the Brazilian artist between 1969 and 1970 (plate 1). Nine millimetres square, the wooden cube is so apparently tiny as to make it impossible not to think initially of its size. But its position on the tip of a finger calls specific attention to its scale, or rather to the experience that arises out of seeing the cube resting preca…
Orders of Law in the One Year Performances of Tehching Hsieh
In 1978, Tehching Hsieh began the first of his One Year Performances, in which he subjected himself to conditions of extreme deprivation or banality over the course of a single year. Accompanying each performance were voluntary written pledges to uphold various behavioral restrictions, the language and format of which strongly resembled that commonly used in legally binding contracts. The lengths that Hsieh took to fulfill his obligations recalle…
Cultural Apropriation
Let's start with a proposal: I prefer translation
Apropriação cultural
.
The property of contemporary Chinese art
Signaling China’s rise as a major soft power, the global emergence of contemporary Chinese art from the mid-1990s also reflected sea changes in how Chinese citizens internalized concepts of private property. Although Communist economic systems sought to end private property by collectivizing the means of production, the liberalization of property ownership in the 1990s and 2000s encouraged an altogether different approach to artistic production, …
Why Chinese Paintings Are So Large
Corroborators in Arms
Looking at the unseen viewer with varying expressions ranging from gentle bemusement to simmering irritation, four men sit around a table draped with a US flag (Fig. 1). Each are portrayed with stereotypes of their respective ethnic and racial backgrounds.1 Irish Catholic Joe Goode eats mackerel while Jewish Larry Bell holds a bagel. Ed Bereal, an African American, holds, or rather, brandishes, a slice of watermelon. In the far right, Ron Miyashi…
Art (16 works) · Political science (13 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Art history (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · History (9 works) · Visual arts (9 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Citation (8 works)