Cautionary Tales: Critical Curating

I bought this collection for the essay by Geeta Kapur, in conjunction with my work as curator of the forthcoming exhibition 'New Art from South Asia' scheduled to open at the Herbert, Coventry, in January 2009, to coincide with the opening of the new galleries. [...] Kapur's presence in this collection is essential; as her position highlights the narrowness of approaches anchored in Western experiences and references alone (the proverbial 'CENTRE') [see the anthology 'Men in Black']--as if the rest of the world (the so-called PERIPHERY) did not count--and invites us to redefine 'internationalism' and the 'contemporary' through a series of cutural decenterings... Her collection of essays 'When was Modernism' is a must for all those readers who aspire to open their perspectives on Art; i.e. on World Art, not just Art made according to Western neo-colonial values and preconceptions. When will Art History and Art Criticism have the maturity to write themselves from multiple centers? The default tag is to Jean-Hubert Martin I would suggest : Geeta Kapur...