Nationalism, internationalism, and globalism in modern art

Lectures: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

4.601 Introduction to Art History or permission of the instructor.

Modern art and architecture emerged in periods of unprecedented nationalism and imperial expansion, while the contemporary art world claims to be "transnational," "global," or "cosmopolitan." The aesthetic of modernism in EuroAmerica reflected the tumultuous context of emerging nations, posing itself as an artists' and intellectuals' movement against crude nationalism, yet often inscribing its works with national conflicts or expansionist aspirations. Similarly, "International Style" architecture spoke to the world, while coding itself as a merger of Northern and Southern European styles. Present-day dreams of a global or cosmopolitan art similarly attempt to neutralize national postures, neo-imperial ambitions, or global capitalism, while sometimes reinscribing these maleficient legacies from the past.

The best contemporary art navigates a path in full knowledge of the stakes, and attempts to find its location in the shifting dynamics of global capitalism and the "new world order." Can architecture mobilize similar fluidity? What tactics have been generated for participating in these dynamics? Has post-colonialism produced a new cosmopolitan subject, or merely spurred a new kind of tourism? Has the end of the cold war obviated nationalism, or spawned a much more virulent set of micro-nations? Are the new stagings of the global and the local merely replaying old national / international dynamics? Or are newer discourses really replacing nationalisms—perhaps relying on a language that is itself borrowed from global capitalism? What role is played by individual artworks versus exhibitionary forms (the world's fair, the biennial)?

In a careful archaeology of some key concepts, we will study how early international modernism interacted with the concept of "nation," and how contemporary discourse concerning globalism changes that dynamic. Readings include Bentham, Hegel, Herder, Renan, and other historical figures, along with more recent work by Benedict Anderson, Arjun Appadurai, Kwame Appiah, Achille Mbembe, Saskia Sassen, and many others.

The subject number for undergraduates is 4.671. For graduates, it is 4.670.

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