My work for the last few years has gone beyond defining modernity in Asian art to looking at the circuits for the recognition and distribution of contemporary art in Asia. In particular these involve two simultaneous phenomena.

The first is the arrival of contemporary Asian artists on the international stage, chiefly at major cross-national exhibitions, including the Venice and São Paolo Biennales. This occurrence may be conveniently dated to Japanese participation at Venice in the 1950s, followed by the inclusion of three contemporary Chinese artists in the Magiciens de la terre exhibition in Paris in 1989. The trend continued with the arrival of Chinese contemporary art at the Venice Biennale in 1993. This arrival and circulation intensified until 2005 when China opened its first, officially supported exhibition at Venice; in the future, it will have its own pavilion.

By 2005, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and indirectly India were regular participants at Venice in addition to Japan and Korea from the 1950s and 1980s respectively.

Read the full essay in caa.reviews.

Image: John Clark. Photo Courtesy the University of Sydney.