The Routledge Companion to Global Art Histories

The Routledge Companion to Global Art Histories explores contemporary global art histories, theories and practices through diverse local, national and transnational perspectives which challenge traditional narratives and embrace cultural plurality.

This Companion features twenty original essays from leading international scholars, organised into four thematic sections: methodologies and pedagogies, identity and agency, place and ecologies, memory and geopolitics. Each section includes an introduction to guide readers through key concepts. The book provides practical frameworks for understanding how power, location and cultural difference shape art histories, enhanced with case studies from the Caribbean, India, China, the Netherlands, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania and other regions, demonstrating how local perspectives reshape global art history narratives.

This volume will be an indispensable reference for scholars and advanced students of art history, visual culture, museum studies and postcolonial studies. It is particularly useful for teachers developing decolonised curricula and scholars studying contemporary art, global modernisms, cultural geography and transnational art practices. Museum professionals, curators and practitioners engaged with questions of representation, identity and institutional critique will also find this Companion useful for understanding and implementing global perspectives within their work.