A large recurring international art exhibition, held typically every two years, that has become central to the global circulation of contemporary art.

Why is contemporary art called 'global'?

Because artists, institutions, markets, and audiences now operate across the world, far beyond the historic Western centers, in an interconnected system.

Global Contemporary Art

Global contemporary art examines how the art world has become transnational, through biennials, art fairs, and the inclusion of artists and audiences far beyond the historic centers of Europe and North America.

Definition

The study of contemporary art as a worldwide, interconnected field, attending to its institutions, markets, and the participation of artists and publics across the globe.

Scope

This topic studies the globalization of contemporary art since around 1989, including the proliferation of biennials, the expansion of markets and museums worldwide, postcolonial and decolonial critiques of the Western canon, and theoretical debates over what 'the contemporary' and a global art history mean.

Core questions

How has the art world become globalized since the late 20th century?
What roles do biennials, fairs, and museums play in this system?
How have postcolonial critiques reshaped the contemporary canon?
What does it mean to write a global history of contemporary art?

Key theories

The global contemporary: Hans Belting and colleagues' analysis of how contemporary art became a global phenomenon after 1989, producing new, decentered art worlds beyond the former Western centers.
Defining the contemporary: Terry Smith's account of contemporaneity as a condition of multiple, coexisting temporalities and a key to understanding the diversity of global contemporary art.

History

The 1989 exhibition Magiciens de la terre in Paris is often taken as a turning point toward a more global art world, despite its criticized framing. Since then biennials have multiplied worldwide and scholars such as Hans Belting and Terry Smith have theorized the global, contemporary condition of art.

Debates

Globalization versus Western dominance: Critics debate whether the global art world genuinely decenters Western power or reproduces it through markets and institutions that still concentrate authority in a few cities.

Key figures

Hans Belting
Terry Smith

Seminal works

beltingbuddensieg2013
smith2009

Frequently asked questions

What is a biennial?: A large recurring international art exhibition, held typically every two years, that has become central to the global circulation of contemporary art.
Why is contemporary art called 'global'?: Because artists, institutions, markets, and audiences now operate across the world, far beyond the historic Western centers, in an interconnected system.