Critical review of Niru Ratnam’s “Art and Globalisation”

Individual written assignment

Module 1, part B

Division of Art History and Visual Studies

Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences
Lund University
KOVN13, Visual Culture: Histories of Modern Visuality, 15 credits
Tutor: Erika Larsson (Module 1, part B)
 Module 1, part B (KOVN13)

Table of contents
1. Critical review
2. Bibliography
Module 1, part B (KOVN13)
 Critical review

This critical review will focus on Niru Ratnam's “Art and Globalisation” chapter
from the Themes of Contemporary art. Niru Ratnam is a writer, art historian, and the
founder of the Niru Ratnam Gallery which grounds its exhibitions upon artists who
focus their creations through a non-western perspective.1
In the chapter Ratnam's interest lies in exploring how artists and curators responded
to globalization. He opens the discussion on art and globalization by reviewing
exhibitions held in the period from the 1980s to the early 2000s. 2 These exhibitions,
encouraged by increasing global connectivity and human movement, are responsible
for renewing the relevance of the debate about the connection between the modern
art in the West and visual culture in the rest of the world.3
Ratnam notes the criticism that befell because the exhibitions either superficially
covered non-western art by subjecting it to the western high art context or gave it
unequal attention. Out of all the exhibitions he mentioned, Documenta 11 4 seemingly
sets out as the most consciously focused towards creating an experience of
globalization in question. Ratnam praises the open format that abandons
centralization and expands it internationally.5 He also praises the decision for
incorporation of live platforms and conferences as globalization affects each of us
differently and as such viewing it simply through the process of art production is

1
C. Hand, Interview with gallerist Niru Ratnam, (website), 2020,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/interview-gallerist-niru-ratnam-ceri-hand, (accessed 8 December
2022).
2

- Primitivism in the Art of the 20th Century, MOMA (1984.)

- MAgiciens de la Terre, Pompidou centre in Paris (1989.)
- Documenta 10, Kassel (1997.)
- Documenta 11, Kassel (2002.)

N. Ratnam “Art and Globalisation” in G. Perry & P. Woods (ed.), Themes in Contemporary Art, New
Haven & London: Yale University Press, pp. 277-313.

3
Ratnam, p. 277.

4
Documenta 11 (8 June – 15 September 2002), (website), 2002,
https://www.documenta.de/en/retrospective/documenta11, (accessed 8 December 2022).

5
This allowed for showcasing the influence of globalization and its understanding from multiple
points of view. Different localities have differing definitions of globalization and differing views on it.
(Ratnam, p. 286.)
 Module 1, part B (KOVN13)

redundant and won’t allow for the richness of a multitude of subjective insights to be
experienced.6

Artists are exactly the ones whose insight is needed, given that art cannot remain
neutral, but rather its production is informed by how artists deal with the effects of
globalization and cultural hybridization.7

Ratnam is a proponent of a globalized approach to art and through the text, questions
the artistic response to globalization. He also questions the connection between
globalization and postcolonialism. This connection is the line that divides positive
from negative views on globalization because although it affects us all and the
majority (people) is neutral, these two polarities leave the impression that all (people)
belong to one or the other polarity.8 Moreover, cultural globalization is a product 9 of
the remaining economic ties which thrived from western exploitations, so it is is
impossible to imagine how globalization would advance without the influence of
colonialism which made it susceptible for the western influences today to form so
quickly.10 Which is also one of the reasons for opposing its influence.11

The receiving nations, whose own culture is susceptible to being affected the most,
are the ones that endured colonial rule.12 How do they deal with it? They sample and
6
Ratnam, p. 286.
7
Ratnam, p. 292.

8
However, whether they are for or against the impact of globalization, both sides use its tools to shape
their hegemony and spread it around the world. (Ratnam, p. 305.)

9
It's not just a product, these two terms are so connected that you can't criticize economic
globalization and elevate cultural globalization. That's too naive. You need to regard and accept both
the positives and the negatives because it is precisely their connection that enables the abandonment
of centrality and the emergence of important new centers of art production. (N. Ratnam, Corporate
Sponsorship around Global Art, , (website), 3 October 2014, https://flash---art.com/article/corporate-
sponsorship-around-global-art/, (accessed 8 December 2022).)

10
Ratnam, p. 305.

11
Ratnam, p. 287.

12
No country is safe from being affected by it. “Ratnam conceptualizes three teleological
characteristics of globalization: technology, homogenization, and migration.” (C.R. Garoian and
Y.M. Gaudelius, “Transnational visual culture: Indecipherable narratives and pedagogy”, in E.M.
Delacruz (ed. Et al.), Globalization, Art, and Education, National Art Education Association, 2009, p.
146.) It is especially important to emphasize the influence of the homogenization of Western culture
through the ever-emerging technological development, which negatively affects regional cultures and
identities. Which, as described in the referenced text, leads to 2 outcomes: migration or extremism of
 Module 1, part B (KOVN13)

reconfigure the incoming cultural transmissions and create hybrids.13 14

Ratnam
argues that globalization and hybridity are inescapable.15 We are born into the hybrid
world, and our everchanging identity adapts to new influences.16

Ratnam's text is discursively overwhelming with data provided which makes it, at
times, troublesome to follow along even though he separated it into chapters. His
voice is often lost in the amount of text and at some moments it is unclear what the
author wanted to express, as well as which methodology he uses to deal with the
topic. Although he later touches on poststructuralism and semiotics 17, it seems as if
he is not committed to using them. 18 All the examples mentioned touch on the
subject, but Ratnam applies too many and it impedes the rhythm of the text.
Sometimes, less is more. Overall, the text could be regarded as comprehensible once
you managed to chase down all his thoughts throughout it. His later writings helped
in decoding his earlier writing and it is empowering to see that he continues to work
on the subject by exhibiting artists who create art that transcends.

resistance to that influence. This extremism has grown tremendously in the last couple of years, and a
trend of growing discord between the Western world and the rest of the world, mainly the global East,
is visible. The East increasingly experiences the tightening of traditional and religious laws that do not
punish the source of Western influences, but ordinary people who are exposed to these influences.
However, it is not only the East, the extremism has also caught on in the countries of the Western
world as well. It seems that the more we progress, the more we regress.
13
Ratnam, p. 303.

14
However, there is a limit. If the recipients adopt the western culture into their own then that is ok,
but if the western culture starts to adopt other people's cultural heritage and customs and incorporate it
into their own then it is considered appropriation. One gets the feeling that any adoption of a foreign
cultural influence into one's own if it does not represent a critical review of the state of affairs,
becomes either an attempt at appropriation or mockery.

15
Ania Loomba defined this perfectly. Hybridity is not a new phenomenon, just like imperial
expansions it has been happening since the dawn of humanity, and the evolution of technology hyper-
sized it and sped it up. So, in a way, globalization wasn’t purely conditioned by post-coloniality, just
as colonialism didn’t happen all on its own. Both stem from an age-old practice that has been tested
many times.
(A. Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Routledge, 1998, p. 3.)

16
Art history has been marking and noting these interconnections and influences.

17
Too late have I stumbled upon one of his earlier texts “Global vision” in which he touches upon
hybridity as a theory. However, hybridity in “Art and Globalization”, like poststructuralism, does not
capture the attention of the entire text, but subtly sits in the background. (N. Ratnam, „‘Global
Vision’ New art from the 90s, Part II“, Third Text, vol. 13, no. 45, 2008, pp. 98-101.,
https://doi.org/10.1080/09528829808576771, (accessed 8 December 2022).)

18
He leaves it where he mentions it. In fact, at other points in the text, it seems as if he is using
another methodology entirely.
 Module 1, part B (KOVN13)

Bibliography
Literature

- Documenta 11 (8 June – 15 September 2002), (website), 2002,

https://www.documenta.de/en/retrospective/documenta11, (accessed 8
December 2022).
- Garoian, C.R., and Gaudelius, Y.M., “Transnational visual culture:
Indecipherable narratives and pedagogy”, in E.M. Delacruz (ed. Et al.),
Globalization, Art, and Education, National Art Education Association, 2009,
pp. 146-147.)
- Hand, C., Interview with gallerist Niru Ratnam, (website), 2020,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/interview-gallerist-niru-ratnam-ceri-hand,
(accessed 8 December 2022).
- Loomba, A., Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Routledge, 1998, pp. 1-103.

- Ratnam, N. “Art and Globalisation” in G. Perry & P. Woods (ed.), Themes in

Contemporary Art, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, pp. 277-
313.

- Ratnam, N., Corporate Sponsorship around Global Art, (website), 3 October

2014, https://flash---art.com/article/corporate-sponsorship-around-global-art/,
(accessed 8 December 2022).

- Ratnam, N., „‘Global Vision’ New art from the 90s, Part II“, Third Text, vol.
13, no. 45, 2008, pp. 98-101., https://doi.org/10.1080/09528829808576771,
(accessed 8 December 2022).