ARTH 396 Art and Culture: Global Contemporary Art: A Central Asian Perspective

• Instructor: Alexandra Tsay

In this course, we will explore and examine artistic and cultural production in Soviet and post-independence Central Asia, which comprises Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, from the 1960s to the early 2000s. While presenting a survey on artistic practices and art movements, the course will offer reflections on how the historicization and examination of a non-Western region and cultural site can prompt us to rethink the methods and approaches of global art history beyond dichotomies of center and periphery, tradition and modernity, global and local. Departing from critical issues in Central Asian art, the course will discuss a range of theoretical and methodological frameworks, including transnationalism, social and feminist art history, and material and formal analysis. The course will expand its case studies to examine post-war and contemporary artists and artistic movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, emphasizing the decentering of Eurocentric narratives and the diversification of the art-historical canon. Students will engage with artworks, archival materials, and theoretical texts. We will discuss and aspire to envision an alternative global art history and explore its critical methods and issues.