Global biennials have proliferated in the contemporary art world, but artists’ engagement with large-scale international exhibitions has a much longer history that has influenced the present in important ways. Going back to the earliest world’s fairs in the nineteenth century, this book argues that “globalism” was incubated in a century of international art contests and today constitutes an important tactic for artists. As world’s fairs brought millions of attendees into contact with foreign cultures, products, and processes, artworks became juxtaposed in a “theater of nations,” which challenged artists and critics to think outside their local academies. From Gustave Courbet’s rebel pavilion near the official art exhibit at the 1855 French World’s Fair to curator Beryl Madra’s choice of London-based Cypriot Hussein Chalayan for the off-site Turkish pavilion at the 2006 Venice Biennale, artists have used these exhibitions to reflect on contemporary art, speak to their own governments back home, and challenge the wider geopolitical realm—changing art and art history along the way. Ultimately, Caroline A. Jones argues, the modern appetite for experience and event structures, which were cultivated around the art at these earlier expositions, have now come to constitute contemporary art itself, producing encounters that transform the public and force us to reflect critically on the global condition.

A unique history of the Australian art market, The Australian Art World combines an understanding of the work of professional Australian artists with a detailed analysis of the forces that drive the markets in which their work is sold. In Australia after 1960 the relationship between artists and their society was altered as the expectations and tastes of the Australian public changed. The activities and expansion of National and State art galleries also instituted firm links with the market, through the promotion of the aesthetic values of Australian art and the establishment of artists' reputations. With the opening of Australian offices of Christie's and Sotheby's in the 1970s, and the recognition of Aboriginal art by collectors, the Australian art market was integrated into the major markets based in London and New York it is now part of a global market. Annette van den Bosch traces the impact of the post-war development of the international art market, the rise of the major auction houses, the influence of wealthy collectors and the establishment of price indexes. Essential reading for anyone involved in the art industry in Australia, The Australian Art World will also appeal to readers with an interest in art history, audience research, public policy, cultural economics and investment. Nobody has written in quite the same depth or in quite the same context about the evolution of the Australian art market. So this book will fill an important gap in the literature on the visual arts in Australia.' David Throsby is Professor of Economics at Macquarie University It both enriches and challenges many of our long-held preconceptions about the way the art world was and the way it now is. It fills the gaps, it completes the big picture and it is essential subject reading.' William Wright, Sherman Galleries

This is the second publication from the ongoing research series, Global Art and the Museum (GAM), which was initiated in 2001 by German art historian Hans Belting and artist, writer and curator Peter Weibel at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. The last 20 years have seen a rapid globalization of the art world, resulting in geographic decentralization and a shift away from a primarily Western perspective. GAM's aim is to analyze the effect of these changes on the art market, museums and art criticism. This volume comprises a collection of essays by experts--such as Claude Ardouin, Keeper of the African Section of London's British Museum, Koeki Claessens, Director of Central Africa's Royal Museum and Eugene Tan, Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore--who presented at the 2007 conference.

Redefining art as a transformative "forcework," The Force of Art offers a new theory of the artwork, in which art's force is explained as a contestation of power in its modern technological manifestations.

Cultural travel and migrancy examines how people in West Java use modern media such as radio, television, and cassettes to give expression to their thoughts and feelings about problems of contemporary life. It describes artistic approaches to globalization, one of the problems that has been felt most pressing during the late New Order and early Reformation. Situating itself at this remarkable turning-point in Indonesian history, it shows that local artists have not been mere victims or products of globalization, but virtual migrants who self-consciously steer the electronic media on their worldwide travels. The book gives an analysis of relevant case-studies and historical debates on culture and representation in Indonesia and the West, and also provides an overview of early developments and recent trends in the Indonesian and West Javanese media landscapes. With its focus on Sundanese language and culture, it is a pioneering and gap-filling complement to the existing literature on media.

International journal of contemporary visual artists.