Mediating Modernisms explores the fertile exchanges between Indigenous artists living in colonial societies and the mid-twentieth century mediators who carried ideas of aesthetic modernism and modernist primitivism into these worlds. Spanning South Africa, North America, Australia, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Brazil, Nigeria, and India, the case studies examine the mediators who played the role of mentors, friends, and patrons to Indigenous artists. Their relationships constituted complex mutual exchanges of aesthetic ideas and practices that inspired artists to create new fusions of modernism with Indigenous art traditions and that reflected their negotiations between affiliation with tradition and embrace of technology, newness, and metropolitan patronage. Challenging current understandings of modernist primitivism and elucidating the creation of the “global contemporary” art world, this volume reveals broader historical patterns, shared ideological and aesthetic dynamics, and the structural parallels that link mediators and Indigenous artists to globally circulating artistic ideas and geopolitical forces.
Contributors. Peter Brunt, Roberto Conduru, Hanna Horsberg Hansen, Elizabeth Harney, Jyotindra Jain, Sandra Klopper, Ian McLean, Anitra Nettleton, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Ruth B. Phillips, Una Rey, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Nicholas Thomas, Norman Vorano, Mark Andrew White
- Cover
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- General Editors’ Foreword | Ruth B. Phillips and Nicholas Thomas
- Preface | Ruth B. Phillips and Norman Vorano
- Introduction. Indigenizing Modernism, Modernizing Primitivism: Mediators and Artists in Twentieth-Century Global Art Worlds | Ruth B. Phillips and Norman Vorano
- Archival Exploration One. A Poet and Painter Imagine Black Modernism in Dakar | Elizabeth Harney
- Part I. Teachers / Mentors
- One. Ulli Beier and the Problem of Postcolonial Modernism | Chika Okeke-Agulu
- Two. Chains of Mentorship: The Amadlozi Effect in Johannesburg in the 1960s and 1970s | Anitra Nettleton
- Three. Adapting Modernism: Oscar Howe, Siouan Traditions, and the Promise of Unlimited Creative Exploration | Mark Andrew White
- Four. Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi: The Quiet Revolution; Maori Modernism, Gordon Tovey, Pineamine Taiapa, and Other Motivators of Change | Megan Tamati-Quennell
- Archival Exploration Two. “The First Contemporary Pictures in New Guinea”: Georgina Beier and Melanesian Modernism | Nicholas Thomas
- Part II. Friends / Collaborators
- Five. Modern Friendship and Collaboration in Sápmi and Denmark: Johan Turi and Emilie Demant Hatt | Hanna Horsberg Hansen
- Six. The Art of Laughter: The Interdependent Creativity of Alson Zuma and David Fox | Sandra Klopper
- Seven. The Painter, the Photographer, and the Tattooist: Friendship and Decolonization in Aotearoa New Zealand | Peter Brunt
- Eight. Djon Mundine and The Aboriginal Memorial | Ian McLean
- Archival Exploration Three. Norval Morrisseau and Selwyn Dewdney: Inventing Modern Anishinaabe Painting | Ruth B. Phillips
- Part III. Patrons / Marketers
- Nine. From the Iconic to the Narrative: Mediatory Processes in the Work of Ganga Devi | Jyotindra Jain
- Ten. Carving Primitivism: Agnaldo Manuel dos Santos and the Brazilian Art World in the Mid-Twentieth Century | Roberto Conduru
- Eleven. Bardon’s Legacy: Paintings, Stories, and Indigenous Australian Art | Una Rey
- Archival Exploration Four. Advertiser and Adviser: James Houston and Inuit Art | Norman Vorano
- Contributors
- Index
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