Global Objects: Toward a Connected Art History

"The established narrative of art history is traditionally narrated through national or cultural lenses that focus on specific artistic practices characteristic of a given nation or culture: bronze in ancient China, architecture in ancient Rome, or oil painting in early modern Europe, for instance. These practices accord with a modern Western frame of reference, which defines art as the fine arts and relegates other works to the category of craft. Objects of use are rarely included-dismissed as insignificant, merely functional, lacking in imagination, or even primitive. The result has been a fragmented, hierarchical field in which broad comparative strokes have proved difficult to sustain, and longstanding biases have become standardized. This book challenges the hierarchy of genres and materials, as well as the concept of singular artistic centers with linear chronological narratives. Author Ned Cooke is one of the leading scholars working on the history of material culture within art history. Taking a thematic approach to interconnected histories and questioning the accepted notion of art as a category that privileges certain modes of production, Cooke focuses on quotidian materials-including fiber, clay, wood, and metal-and the so-called decorative arts as embodiments of a more inclusive human history of visual culture. Through an exploration of the conception, production, circulation, and ongoing social life of objects over a broad period of time and geography, he develops a more global and complex view of culture in which initiative, emulation, adaptation, and innovation flow in multiple directions, and objects operate locally, regionally, and globally, often at the same time. Eschewing traditional binaries of east versus west and fine art versus decorative art, this book offers a radical, non-normative guide to thinking about a connected world art history"
A bold reorientation of art history that bridges the divide between fine art and material culture through an examination of objects and their usesArt history is often viewed through cultural or national lenses that define some works as fine art while relegating others to the category of craft. Global Objects points the way to an interconnected history of art, examining a broad array of functional aesthetic objects that transcend geographic and temporal boundaries and challenging preconceived ideas about what is and is not art.Avoiding traditional binaries such as East versus West and fine art versus decorative art, Edward Cooke looks at the production, consumption, and circulation of objects made from clay, fiber, wood, and nonferrous base metals. Carefully considering the materials and process of making, and connecting process to product and people, he demonstrates how objects act on those who look at, use, and acquire them. He reveals how objects retain aspects of their local fabrication while absorbing additional meanings in subtle and unexpected ways as they move through space and time. In emphasizing multiple centers of art production amid constantly changing contexts, Cooke moves beyond regional histories driven by geography, nation-state, time period, or medium.Beautifully illustrated, Global Objects traces the social lives of objects from creation to purchase, and from use to experienced meaning, charting exciting new directions in art history.