Art and Sovereignty in Global Politics

This volume aims to question, challenge, supplement, and revise current understandings of the relationship between aesthetic and political operations. The authors transcend disciplinary boundaries and nurture a wide-ranging sensibility about art and sovereignty, two highly complex and interwoven dimensions of human experience that have rarely been explored by scholars in one conceptual space. Several chapters consider the intertwining of modern philosophical currents and modernist artistic forms, in particular those revealing formal abstraction, stylistic experimentation, self-conscious expression, and resistance to traditional definitions of 'Art.' Other chapters deal with currents that emerged as facets of art became increasingly commercialized, merging with industrial design and popular entertainment industries. Some contributors address Post-Modernist art and theory, highlighting power relations and providing sceptical, critical commentary on repercussions of colonialism and notions of universal truths rooted in Western ideals. By interfering with established dichotomies and unsettling stable debates related to art and sovereignty, all contributors frame new perspectives on the co-constitution of artworks and practices of sovereignty.

Douglas Howland is Buck Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. He is, most recently, author of International Law and Japanese Sovereignty: The Emerging Global Order in the 19th Century (2016) and co-editor (with Luise White) of The State of Sovereignty: Territories, Laws, Populations (2009).

Elizabeth Lillehoj is Professor of Asian Art History with a specialization in premodern Japan, teaching at DePaul University in Chicago, USA. She is the editor of three volumes on East Asian art and author of Art and Palace Politics in Japan, 1580s-1680s (2011).

Maximilian Mayer is Research Professor at the German Studies Center of Tongji University, Shanghai, with a specialization in International Relations, Science, Technology, and Arts. He is co-editor of The Global Politics of Science and Technology Vol.1 and Vol.2 (2014).