ABSTRACT
The decade following the Second World War saw the Venice Biennale undergo a political realignment in which it distanced itself from its previous fascist connections. Expanding the group of nations presenting at the Venice Biennale was seen as a way of moving beyond the Occidental, and in 1954, 17 works by Kusama Affrandi from Indonesia were included in the Biennale. The new-found interest in Asian nations presenting at the Venice Biennale saw the inaugural president of the Art Association of the Philippines Inc., Purita Kalaw Ledesma, requesing him to participate for the Philippines in the 1962 Biennale. In 1971, the honorary secretary of the National Gallery of Malaysia, Frank Sullivan, wrote to the Biennale seeking confirmation that only nations who possessed their own pavilion could join the ranks of exhibitors in the Venice Biennale. Asian contemporary art was recognised in the early 1990s by curators and the organisers of the Venice Biennale.
