VDM Verlag Art Museums in Global Age: Acquisition Policies of Museums of Modern and Contemporary Art from 1980s to the Present

This book is an attempt to investigate the processes of globalization and their impact on the contemporary art world. There are several issues which are of the major interest for this research, namely the notion of global art and the connections between contemporary and modern art, the definition of a non-Western artist, as well as the concept of museums of modern and contemporary art. The main aim of this research is to find out whether these museums incorporate non-Western art into their permanent collections and how often they exhibit works of non-Western artists presently. To study this problem four world-renowned art museums have been chosen: Tate Modern in London, MoMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and MUMOK in Vienna. Being art museums with a long Eurocentric art tradition they try to present themselves as remarkable contemporary art institutions. So the core question is: Are these museums really open to the changes happening in the global world and ready to follow the latest art trends in it? This book is addressed to both art professionals and the general public interested in the issues of art globalization.