Artist-Citizens and Political Change in Postcolonial Indonesia

FAIN: FA-54077-08

Kenneth M. George
University of Wisconsin System (Madison, WI 53715-1218)

This interdisciplinary project combines anthropological and art historical approaches for the study of postcolonial artist-citizens. Using the fruits of a decade-long collaboration with one of Indonesia's most noted senior painters--A. D. Pirous (b. Meulaboh, Aceh, 1932)--I plan to write a book that will recuperate the artist-citizen as a figure worthy of ethnographic and art historical concern. Although biographical approaches have lost much of their authority in art history, an ethnographic focus on the quotidian dilemmas and experiences of postcolonial painters may help us shed light on the broader social, cultural, and political strains that have animated contemprary art worlds. The book will propose ways to theoretically and methodologically bridge the fields of anthropology and art history, particularly with respect to these disciplines' interest in political-aesthetic subjectivity and global art worlds.