Discrepant abstraction

Mercer, Kobena, Abe, Stanley K., Cheetham, Mark and Clarke, David (2006) Discrepant abstraction. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., USA. ISBN 1899846433. [Book]

Abstract

To this volume I contributed both the Introduction (pp. 6-30) and the essay “Black Atlantic Abstraction: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling.” (pp. 182-206) Drawing on the concept of ‘discrepant engagement' in the literary model of cross-cultural studies proposed by Nathaniel Mackey, this volume examined practices of abstraction that depart from institutional narratives of formalist ‘purity.' Contributions span from Malevich's monochromes, through Yves Klien and Robert Rauschenberg to in-depth studies of materials originating in Hong Kong, Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran as well as in Asian American, Canadian, Australian and Caribbean contexts. My chapter followed on from, “Frank Bowling's Map Painting” in Gilane Tawadros and Sarah Campbell eds. Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes, Venice and London: Forum for African Arts, Prince Claus Fund, INIVA, 2003, 139-149. The use of abstraction to address trauma in the diasporic formation of Caribbean subjectivity was explored by way of the concept of ‘fossil identities' proposed by novelist Wilson Harris. Harris was also the subject of a commissioned interview in the book's closing chapter by Nathaniel Mackey.

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