ABSTRACT
What are the consequences for the history of art when economic markets are increasingly integrated and cultural interaction has been heightened through technological developments in the field of communications? Should it proceed in a spirit of “business as usual,” or should it attempt to accommodate itself to the new circumstances? Is art history a specifically Western discipline, or can it aspire to some sort of universal value? How do its concerns and obsessions appear from a non-Western perspective? How parochial is art history when seen from a global point of view? Can the artistic traditions of non-Western cultures be addressed using interpretive grids adopted in the study of
western art? Do these theories and methods inevitably distort our understanding of the non-Western “other?” Can non-Western art history be done without them? The organizers of the Cork Art Seminar, James Elkins in particular, as well as those who took part, are to be thanked for having sought to confront these questions directly.
