A Country of Last Whales – Contemplating the Horizon of Global Art History; Or, Can We Ever Really Understand How Big the World Is

In this article, the author discusses art criticism, literature, theory and global art history. For a few years now, there has been much discussion of ‘global art history’, but the author wonders if one can ever really understand how big the world is. As a way of addressing the sheer vastness of the world, he attempts to consider the relationship between literature and art writing. In the past, critics from Charles Baudelaire to Clement Greenberg wrote about both literature and art. Today's art critics seem less literary. Is it because they are more enamoured of theory? Who reads art criticism any more – especially in the context of the emerging arts discourses within Southeast Asia? Today, everywhere, there is more and more art – more biennales, more art fairs. There is even more art writing: reviews, catalogue essays, art books of all shapes and sizes. Yet there is also more talk about the decline of reading, the decline of university departments of literatures, and the decline of criticism. There is an impression that, as a whole, all over the world, the humanities are suffering. But so long as there is art, there will be art writing. However, the question is, what will its purpose be

Aesthetics · Art · Art criticism · Art history · Art world · Contemporary art · Context (archaeology · Criticism · Literature · Performance art · The arts · Visual arts · Architecture and Cultural Influences · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Asian Studies and History · History

• Positioning contemporary art worlds and art publics in Southeast Asia

  Michelle Antoinette, Francis Maravillas•World Art•2020

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