ABSTRACT
This book explores the attribution and local negotiation of cultural valuations of artistic and art-institutional practices around the world, and considers the diverse ways in which these value attributions intersect with claims of universality and cosmopolitanism. Taking Michael Herzfeld’s notion of the “global hierarchy of value” as point of departure, the volume brings together six empirical studies of the collection, circulation, classification and exhibition of objects in present-day Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Africa and Indigenous Australia in light of Europe’s loss of global hegemony. Including reflections by a number of senior scholars, the chapters demonstrate that the question of valuation lies at the heart of artistic and art-institutional practices writ large – including museum practices, museum architecture, galleries, auction houses, art fairs and biennales.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter Reflection 1|7 pages
Going beyond, notes on cultural valuations and spatial difference
part 1|39 pages
Tropicalism and canonization
chapter 1|24 pages
Inhotim, an international tropical museum
part 2|36 pages
Recognition and ambivalence
chapter 2|23 pages
Ambivalent art at the tip of a continent
part 3|40 pages
Global circulation of ideas and universality
chapter 3|26 pages
A local universal modernity
part 4|39 pages
Curation and authorization
part 5|36 pages
Validation and circuits of valuation
chapter 5|24 pages
From Mumbai to London
chapter Reflection 10|5 pages
Validation and the global hierarchy of value
chapter Reflection 11|5 pages
A mandala of value
part 6|46 pages
Indigenous art and Indigenous cultural capital