Michael Hatt and Charlotte Klonk, Art History: A critical introduction to its methods Postcolonialism

(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006)

W E NAVE SEEN how more recent approachesto art history have

undermined the universal claims of earlier methods. Marxism has
insisted that classdifference must always be taken into account; similarly,
feminism has assertedthe importance of sex and gender differences.Rather
than making general statements that are applicable to aH people, these
methods rogue that such statements mistake an interest group the bour-
geoisie or heterosexual men, for instance -- for all humanity. In a sense,
postcolonialism follows this trend, but here differences of race and ethni-
city are at issue.Postcolonialism maintains that universal claims are mis-
taken since they assumethat a certain white, Western identity or position
is the template for aH people, and that cultural differences are ignored.
Indeed, the very term 'postcolonial ' suggests this, evoking as it does histo-
ries of empire, resistanceand decolonisation.It should be clear from the
outset that there is a powerfU political agendaat work.
Postcolonial theory is perhaps best thought of in geographical terms.
The model of centre and periphery is frequency invoked; a distinction
between a metropolitan centre, where power is held and where decisions
are made, and the periphery, the outlying areaswhich are administered or
exploited. The British Empire is a clear example, with the imperial capital
of London at the centre and the many colonies around it. This might not
be a literal image of imperial geography -- after aU, colonial subjects from
India or elsewheremay actuary live in London itself -- but it is at least a
metaphorical one. Postcolonial theory asks this: what would history look
like if it were written Rom the point of view of the periphery?What stories
would history tell if radier than the perspectiveand valuesof the centre,
the colonised voice narrated and evaluated?What if the coloniser ceased
to speak for the colonised, and dle colonised spoke instead ior the colo-
niser?Postcolonial history, then, might be described asdte periphery talking
back to the centre, as the viewpoints of the marginalised or the colonised.
It challengesor questions the authority of some voices, and demandsthat
others be heard.
On the one hand, this meansthat a different history emerges.So, for
example,accountsof modernism will not simply trace developmentsin
Picasso'sParis and the Newyork of Abstract Expressionism, but will insist
on the waysmodernism will have been used and practised in, say,Mexico
zz6 .4d blsroT Postcokniaiism
zz7
the radical ambitions of postcolonialism.In art history there is most
notably Bernard Smith's EuropeanHszonand tbe SowtbEacgit(ig6o) which
examined European responsesto Pacific peoples and cultures and the ways
in which representations of them were shaped by European representational
traditions and ideas.
The real precursors of postcolonialism, however, were figures involved
with decolonisationaround the globe, both culturally and politically. Key
interventions include the n&fffudemovement which emergedin the Franco-
phone world in the late i93os and l94os. This was an anti-colonial tendency
that offered a positive imageof ARica in the wakeof colonial racismand
denigration, and assessed the collective experienceof the black diaspora.
]VZ2rftwde
was a loosely-defined term and was used in divergent ways. For the
poet Aims C6saire it signalled a concern ior the social determination of
black consciousness;
that is, for the waysin which colonialism had shaped
African identities.In contrast,for the thinker and politician Leopold
Senghor, ?z'2ff%dedescribed a fixed nature of black identity, essential char-
acteristicsthat persisted through different historical experiences.
More
important still for contemporary scholarshas been the work of Frantz
Fanon (lgz5--61).Born in Martinique, Fallon worked as a psychiatrist in
French North Africa and was actively involved in political struggles, such
as the Algerian fight for independence. His book -Bhc&S&fn,}Mitr Masks
(tg86) explored the ways in which the black psyche was distorted and
damagedby colonialism and this work has been very influential in the
development of postcolonial approaches.While these examples, and many
others, were crucial to the debate about culture and colonialism, it was the
publication of Said's One7zra/fsm
that is omentaken to mark the beginnings
of postcolonialism as it is generaHyunderstood.
Said's originality is evident in the way he definesthe subject of his
book. Orientalism is, first, an academicspecialisation:a topic studied by
archaeologists,historians, theologians, and others in the West who are
concerned with Midde Eastern and North African cultures. This is a
straightforward definition. But Said adds two further meanings to the term.
Orientalism is also something more general,something that has shaped
Western thought since the Greeks, at least: namely, a way of dividing up
the world betweenthe West and the East.What appearsto be a simple
geographicalfact is, saysSaid, actually an idea.The division of the world
into these two parts is not a natural state of affairs, but an intellectual
choice made by the West in order to define itself The third meaning for
Orientalism is more historically specific.Since the lat:terpart of the eigh-
teenth century, when European colonialism in the Middle East developed
most fully, Orientdism has beena meansof domination,a part of the
colonial enterprise. Said argues that colonialism is not only about the
 .4rf b£stoT Postcobniat
sm
zz9
notions that structure Said'sargument.Thesepaintings, with their painstak-
ing and meticulous descriptions of Middle Eastern markets and mosques,
haremsand temples,tell us nothing about the culturesthey purport to
represent, but viewed from a critical postcolonial position reveal much
about the French culture that produced and consumed them. However
much they may appear to be true representations, topographicaHyand
anecdotally,they in fact only illustrate the backgroundbeliefsand ideo-
logical needs of Europeans.
First and foremost theseare not the accuratedepictions of Oriental
life they pretend to be, but are fantasies as Nochlin's title suggest (which
is a phraseshe borrowsfrom Said'sbook).The work of G6r6meand
Delacroix should be understood as an imaginative invention. The subject
matter is a compendium of stereotypical qualities: types who are lustful,
violent and lazy, for example. G6r6me's lbe S?zae Char«zer(Figure z7) shows
a young boy performing for an audience of men, and Nochlin identifies in
the beautify youthful flesh and,particularly, in the buttocks which arethe
fulcrum of the composition, more than a hint of sexualdeviance.Similarly,
the stock scenes of life in the harem, of barbaric customs, of religious

z7 Jean-Leon G6r6me, Tbf SlzaleCharmer,c.i87o, oil on canvas,83.8 X izz.i cm, The

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
:::Zi;El;lIfE l:B
 .4# b£stoT Postcoloniaiism
zjo qz
method). Two particular problems stand out. First, there is an internal metaphor by some postcolonialists for the description of cultures, to
theoretical contradiction in Orzfrzra/{sm,and this relatesto the distinction emphuise that cultures are not single, pure formations, but are mixtures
we saw earlier between Orientalism as a long-standing Gestureof Western of different ethnic or cultural components and traditions. Cultures interact
culture'sway of dividing the world and Orientalism as a modern mechanism and shapeeachother through exchange.In talking about hybridity and
of colonialism. In the latter case,Said deploys a Foucauldian method, based cultural exchangeit is important, again,to emphasisewhat dhs is not.
on the notion of discourse:that the Other -- in this case,the orient -- is Art history has long recognised that European and American artists
always a construct. This entails the impossibility of mutual understanding, have used forms and visual ideas hom colonial cultures. So called 'primitiv-
since one cannot step outside discourse and find the truth about another ism is the best example;the use by European painters of such artefacts ;s
culture. On the other hand, dtough, Said ends the book with a humanist ..n icon masksor Oceanic carving as a visual source,to extend their stylis-
wish. Orientalism failed, he says,becauseit 'failed to identify with human tic vocabulary.Such a move is oren attached to a simultaneous idealising
experience ' and did not recognise the 'common enterprise of promoting of other cultures as,say,sexuaHyliberated or closer to nature or any number
human community ' (Said, i978, p. 3z8). In opposition to the work of the of other stereotypical notions. Hybridity is not about this abhor'7tion and
Orientalists who populate his book, Said champions a scholarship that the stylistic borrowings so well documentedin the discipline The differ-
defends
'humanfreedomandknowledge
' (Said,i978,p. 3z7).
These are inspiring words and sentimentswhich are very appealing.
But if Foucault is correct, then knowledge is alwaysan effect of power, and
==1=s=u==;!::£=
j:R.ni:,=:u:
freedom is an illusion. So how are these grand claims possible?This is, The show was based around a set of comparisons, placing modern
perhaps, the central problem of postcolonialism, and one related to our artworks alongsidetribal objects to show where inspiration'had come from
central concern of the hermeneutic problem. We discussthis further at the and to demonstrate a general'afhnity ' betweenmakers of culture in differ-
end of this chapter. ent parts of the world. The anthropologist JamesClifford wrote a long
Second, there is a less abstract problem. Said's account is about the and critical reviewof the exhibition which revealedvery clearlythe waysin
West, detailing as it does the way the West 'orientalises' the cultures of the whirl. the more traditional art-historical approachto culture diflbrence
Middle East in order to produce a senseof Western identity. This hasbeen actuallyhid an importanthistory.Clifford took issuewith thenotion of
criticised for offering too homogenousa picture of the West itselfl too afhnity ', the idea that different peoples share something that transcends
homogenous a picture of cultural relations. The model of us and them .m.l-.I,.J .L ory. Moreover, the emphasison a purely visual affinity
'/
overlooks the many dynamics within and between cultures. Moreover, critics overlooked the ways.in which objects had moved from one part of
havenoted, this concentration on the internal coherenceof Western dis- 'he world to another, how colonial cultures had acquired these objects, and
course fails to addressde question of the actual effects of colonialism on the ways in which they were redefined as 'art ' regardlessof dleir use in
culture its material effects.What about resistance?What about the the locations where they had been made. In effect, the exhibition efEaced
encounters between people outside the texts Said dissects?A second model the history of the tribal artefacts,and while it purported to showthe influ-
of postcolonialism has developedwhich is better equipped to deal with ence of the tribal on Western modernism, it faded to addressboth how
these questions, and we now turn to that. this influence wasimplicated in colonialism, and the waysin which colonial
cdture had transformedthe wodd of the colonised.Clifford mguedthat
the notion of a transcendental 'afhnity ' connecting peoples both disavowed
Hybridity
material and historical processesand 'ignored the fact that colonialism is a
While Said, and Nochlin after him, emphasisethe division of West and two-way process. An approach that deals adequately with the question of
East,this other powerful strand of postcolonial theory takes a rather dif- cultural encounterswould needto be more historically specific,and more
ferent approach to relations between cultures.Instead of concentrating on attentive to the political and ethical issuesthat underpin these encounters.
the separation of cultures, on the dyadic split between'us' and 'them ', other It is not enoughsimply to celebratenon-Western art - this is, in itself
thinkers and scholarshave emphasisedthe idea of hybridity. The term oren central to colonial endeavours.A postcolonial theory founded on the
hybrid, of course,is derived from the biological sciences.It refersto the idea of hybridity is fm more thoroughgoing as an h storical method and
offspring producedby two different species.This has been used as a In terms of pinpointing the politics of cultural exchange.
zjz Art bistoly Postcoioniatism

A good exampleof this is David Craven'saccountof Abstract

challengeto this racism.Pollock is not simply copying visualmotifs; he is
Expressionismhom a postcolonial viewpoint. It might be surprising to
absorbing Navajo valuesand representing them in his canvases. This is
explore the work of JacksonPollock in this way; acer all, it is hard to see
p?litically motivated.He seeshis own left.wing valuesas consonantwith
how his all-over drip painting could be discussedin relation to the interests
Navajo values,as if both he and they presenteda challengeto the increas-
of postcolonialism. This, in part, is Craven'spoint. Abstract Expressionism
has long beenseenas the epitomeof modernism,the end point of a McCa theism in the earagendaof the USA which readied its apogeewith
teleological process whereby painting becomes ]ess and ]ess representational
' Craven seesbeyond the dyed of native and white American cultures.
and more to do with the materiality of paint on canvas.Historians have
and finds a political group that cuts acrossthis pairing. In addition to this,

".'"Fl;n:;nt:n# £H
seenthe ascendancyof Abstract Expressionismas the triumph of American
painting, a moment when New York becomesthe locus of the most impor-
tant avant-garde practice. More recently, politically-minded historians have
-- a workshop .characterised by a mix of white and Hispanic American
examined the way in which Abstract Expressionism was used by the CIA
to signal American freedom during the Cold War, and its use in travelling
exhibitions as a means of exporting the ideology of the ruling American
H=,rE
ii/I il.I.l:=H;=;:'=:=:':.=;'!
i:=:==':?
European schools and influences.While there certainly are influences hom
elite and its global ambitions. Craven begins by pointing to two paradoxes

w F; : i:!n ::r=n!,k:!:
Europe, such as .Surrelism(itself already participating in anti-colonial
that trouble dns orthodoxy. Abstract Expressionismis viewed as a sign of
American cultural imperialism, and yet a majority of Americans are indif-
ferent or hostile to it. Second, there has been a great receptivity to Abstract is not simply the appropriation of visual forms.
Expressionism in Latin America at a time when American intervention was
, it is this alternative history of Abstract Expressionism, Crav.n con-
increasing and provoking resistance.If Abstract Expressionism really is no
cludes, that radical artists in Latin America understand and henceexplains
more than a conduit for imperilism, then why the hostility at home and their enthusiasmfor Abstract Expressionismas a form of subversivearte
the enthusiasm amongst anti-Americans abroad?
Craven'sarticle is wide-ranging in the material it covers,but here we Craven'shistory of Abstract Expressionis one that unfolds temporary and
geographically in contrast to orthodox accounts which either celebrate ;
examine his account of Jackson Pollock as exemplary of his general approach.
heroic moment in New York when the avant-gradebecomesAmerican. or
By trying to view and analysePollock's work from the margin rather than
explore the waysthis,Pure US style is exploited by the state and politicised
the centre, he seeksto show that this is neither the pure Western art mod-
as a weapon in the Cold War. In effect, a post-colonial approach reveals
ernists would have us believe, nor is it only implicated in the global politics
Abstract Expressionism to be not American ting but an art of the
of the developedworld. CravendiscussesPoHock'slong-standing interest
Americas, globaHy dispersed in origin, and moving between cultures, a pan-
in Native American cultures, and arguesthat Pollodds famous 'drip ' paint-
ings are modelled on Navajo sand paintings. Pollock does not, however, American radical style. Again it is worth pointing out that, given the
absenceof a specific theory in postcolonialism, Craven ands his commit-
simply absorb Navajo art as a visual novelty; unlike some modernist paint- ments elsewhere.Just as Said turns to Foucault, so Cr,ven usesMarxist
ers he doesnot view the Navajo as an exotic 'other', as happensin Orien-
'dees His analysis takes account of economic and political developments
talism. Instead, he identifies with the Navajo. Richer than emphasisingthe
as p'rtially determining artworks; indeed, his very premise is that Abstract
cultural distance between him and the Navajo, he seeksout commonality.
What is crucial to Craven's argument is another historical detail.
Pollock immersed himself in Navajo art at a time when Native Americans'
traditional cultural forms were being discouragedand the state wasactively
some generic humanity, but specificaHy a shared position in relation to the
creatingan acceptableIndian idiom. Art schoolsfor Native Americans,ior
USA and its economic organisation.
example, were teaching different techniques and forms of representation
A different approachto hybridiq can be found in Annie Coombes's
that were more acceptable to the state and which suggestedassimilation
essay 'Inventing the Post-Colonial ' (i99z) published in the cultural studies
rather than difference. CravenseesPollock's use of Navajo culture as a
journal New Rormarzofzs.
Coombes's essaydoes not deal with artworks or
 Postcoloniaiism

artefacts as such, but with curating and display. She offers a critique of a
number of exhibitions in order to addressthe question of the postcolonial
ana happy ending, embodong=' aproblem ry display of objects and
and the often rather naive enthusiasm it produces. Again, this is not a new
In the exhibition Hzdderz
nzoPhsg rbe.4mazorzin the Museum of
methodologicaldeparture;what is important about Coombes'sapproach
Mankind, London, Amazonian Indians were shown to have a rich culture
to postcolonialismis analogousto what we saw in the developmentof
feminist theoriesof art history. Rather than simply finding a meansof which was both the .result of interaction with Western or non-indigenous
HL6v44vuu
res and yet still embodied their particular identities. However,what
addressing the object, Coombes asserts that we need to think more broadly
the exhibition did not show was the struggle betweenthe Indians ani the
about the cultural, social and political structures in which art is displayed
and consumed.We need to attend not only to objects but, more impor- Brazilian government and the continued resistanceof indigenous peoples.
tantly, the institutional contexts in which they are located.The effects of In other words,the postcolonial grail of hybridity was seenas a straight-
forward fact rather than as an ongoing political problem. '"''6
transcultura] encounters are to be Houndin the use of objects and artefacts
A similar problem emerged fn I/s Magfrfens de /a Zerrr at Paris's Centre
rather than imminendy in the object itself There is also an analogyto be
Pompidou. This was Jso an explicit attempt to present hybridiV- and to
madewith feminism in terms of art history as a discipline. In a move
refute the notion of an essential and unchanging native culture However,
similar to Griselda Pollodds critique of early feminism, Coombes argues
while cultural artefacts were presented as hybrid and mobile. the exhibition
that it is not enoughsimply to add anothersetof itemsto the museumor
syllabus.Expanding the canon to include non-Western or colonial work is ignored the question of diasporal.that is, of the scattering of a people and
its culture.around the world. While objects were seento appear m different
insufhcient; one needs to consider the fundamental principles of the
museum or syllabus itself parts of the globe, the voluntary or forced migration of people was not
addressed.Thus, the exhibition presented a world where cultures interact
The exhibitions Coombes discusseswere all self-consciously aiming
to challengethe dyadic structure of West and Other, dte 'us and them' 't a distance, while bodies remain geographically static and any move to
another culture is followed by a return home; to invoke the theoreticJ
model that underpinned the approadt of scholarslike Said and Nochlin.
notion of hybridity does not explain why it is that there is a large North
Instead, the curators wanted to show objects which were hybrid; that is,
which were the result of cultural contact and interaction. At the sametime, African communityin Paris.Moreover,the notion of hybridity wasseen
there was an attempt to show the objects as .i!#?rerztfrom Western art and
to apply everywhere,as if it werea monolithic state of all cultur.s, with
]o real regard far the balance of power or who benefits from any puticu-
craft, as signs of non-Western identity. This sounds thoroughly postcolo-
nial, but Coombes asks whether this ready challengesEurocentrism, or lar hybrid form. What Coombesis alerting us to is that hybtidity can be
as p'oblematic a model as any other. Her position is closer to than ofthe
whether a celebration of postcolonial cultures updates the vogue for the
primitive. The central problem, in Coombes'scritique, was that attention anthropologist Nicholas Thomas. Thomas usesthe term 'entanglement' to
describehow different cultures are interwoven in such a waythat the threads
to the object, and to the celebration of the object, displaced any senseof
each cannot be separated even though they may be visible. The trafhc
history: of the object'slocation, its journey from one part of the globe to
another, its display, and of its continuing history. The desire to celebrate in ideas and.objects does not mean that a culture blends into a perfect,
smoodt whole, but that it comprises many relations, visible and invisible.
difference and diversiW- to display other cultures in an unrelentingly posi-
Coombes'sarticle is not simply a review of some exhibitions or of
tive manner, meant that the problems of history vanished to leave only what
curatorial practices. She uses these case studies to identi$ some key prob-
Coombes wittily terms 'a scopic feast' -- a plethora of visual pleasure which
lems with postcolonialism itself Among these is a central conun'vum we
allowsthe spectatorto ignore global issues.In part this is a critique of
traced in this book. Art history rests on the assumption that an
multiculturalism, the idea of different peoplesliving side by side as in a
major city like London or New York. A modern city is not simply a patch- artwork is specific.to its culture which may not be our owrl it requiresa
work quilt of self-contained ethnic groups but a process of continual
different.set of criteria from our own for 'evaluationand compo:hensiorl
Nonetheless, we go to museums and view these works with pleasure and
change,and artworks and objects are markers of those changes.Hybridity
interest, recognising them as valuable.In postcolonial theory, this familiar
suggestsa greater porousness but, as Coombes makes clear, merely replac-
historian problem is transformed into a geographical one. Rather than the
ing one term with another is not enough. Hybridity is too often presented
issue of cultures reading each other through time, here we are confronted
q6 Art bistro PostcoloKiaiism
q7
with the problem of space;of how a culture on one side of the globe
can find valuein the work of a culture from the other side.What is
the mechanism that enables us to do this, to bridge the huge cultural
:"'*':ll.;.l=:T!
;:=':i,='hZ ::=T'kJ-st:
chasm between a Londoner and an Amazon Indian? Coombes's answer
seemsto be that there may be no mechanism;it is an illusion. The museum
ascribesan aesthetic value and othersa meaning for the work, but this rests
on the belief that we are simply all sharing in the wonders of human
creation. Such a happy engagementwith other cultures is, in effect, a
version of primitivism in a sense, in that the native voice is overvalued,
denial of the history that allowed theseobjects to be viewed.What Coombes
given an oramlar knowledgeor unmediatedaccessto truth that would not
seesin these disp]ays is simi]ar to the internal inconsistency of Said's Or£-
be assumed of an outsider's voice. It also ignores the hybridity of cultures,
enfa/fsm:a desireboth to insist on differenceand on similarity at the same
time.While not claimingthat we cannevercommunicate
with or under-
stand the products of another culture, Coombes implicidy suggeststhat
".""'='=
c'' 1:=:':,==:1==1:=!;.-'&
==3=:;:='==
The most commonresponsehas been to rely on other theoretical
the art-historical assumption of legibility and cross-cultural or trans-
historical understanding may be a mistaken notion that hides unpleasant
histories.

Critical appraisal

The importance of postcolonialism is plain to see.The insistencethat other

voicesbe heard and the demand that culture be understood as a global issue
!Hail::nnr===U;'H
studies assert the need to speak from the margins the theories used are
often very central in terms of their cultural provenanceand implicit autho-
are both powerful reminders of what is excluded by universalising accounts
of history. Postcolonidism, at a theoretical level, takesus as far from the
beginningsof art history as canbe.We saw that art history asa systematic
IZ.:l;
==::"?=':.=L:='i:
T'::! £l# l;:l
Marxism or psychoanalysis or Foucauldian 'discourse theory, one presum-
discipline rested on two perceptions: that art is historicaHy specific to the
ably. believes these to be true accounts of human history or the human
culture that produces it, and that we can formalise explanations Gorhis
torical change.Hegel's concept of Absolute Idea worked to unite the local
and the universal,to allow a history which is culturally specificbut enables
subsequent generations to understand the art of the past. In postcolonia
lism this unity is blown apart. Cultural specificitymay be pursuedto a
point where an outsider is disallowed from speaking, either through insuf-
-- Western though it may be -- is indeed true, much can be achieved.
ficient knowledge, or becauseof the ethical problems incurred when one
person decides to speak on behalf of someone else.Of course,this is also Feminists, Gor example, may be able to us. a Western heminisr theory to
the central difhculty that postcolonialism faces:how do we bridge the gap reve,I,the proto"'dy patriar':h,I structures not ody of coloni,I :* gimp
betweencultures? but ot the indigenousculturesthemselves. There me points, in other words
where scholars may recognise ' ' ''"'' "' vw '- wwu ',
There are two aspectsto this problem. The first of these is a theo- ..;..- .,,;..L . 1. : . , a Eurocentric viewpoint, but override objec-
lions with a desireto uphold certain liberal, democratic or raclicJ values
retical issue and is well expressedby Nicholas Thomas: 'While an account
'for example,a commitment to anti-sexism or anti-racism).
may aspire to offer a global dieory . . . any text on colonialism will be
deeply shapedboth by the positions from which we speak and by the par- The second aspect to fhe problem of postcolonial theory is that there

ticular kinds of texts and histories we feel compelled to address'(Thomas,

CoZorzza/lsmtCaZfur?,1994, p. z7) in response to this, some scholars have
in l:;:il h.'£lhillRIR
produce models of colonial discourse' or of inter-cultural relations that
simply opted ior a relativist position, arguing that there canbe no true, or
might characterise all colonial encounters. Nicholas Thomas has again
 Art bistoty Postcoknia!sm
q9
provided a particularly forcefd critique of this tendency,exposing how the
wish for an overarchingtheory requiresa reductiveapproachto historical
materials.
First, thereis a dangerof historical reductiveness.
Thomas points out
as if we are unable to pronounce except in such a partial and interested
that the very term colonialism is omen used in a rather vague manner,
as if it is self-evident. Yet its forms are myriad; think, ior example, of
the political and cultural differences between Columbus's arrival in the
Americas,the formation of the Mughal empire in India in the earlysix
teenth century, and the more recent Chinese invasion of Tibet. Second,
there is a danger of a political reductiveness.While Thomas by no means
Bibliography
defends colonialism, he points out that colonialism cannot be characterised

'""
as always and only ever bad, since it has also been enabling or progressive
for some peoples. Moreover, a colonising culture is not a homogenous
formation. In any colonial power, there are internal debatesand struggles
about the ethics and practice of imperialism. Third, there is also a danger
of a conceptual reductiveness.Thomas's examplehere is the way in which
#l$=U=ES;r
colonialism is flequendy muddled with racism, as if the two are not only
always partners but are, effectively, the same thing. While colonialism is
often underpinned by racist preconceptions this is not alwaysthe case,and
may be Hounded,ior instance, on religious beliefs instead. Thomas Jso
can cast new ]ight on visual culture and its history.
reminds us that racism comes in many different varieties,and is yet another
term that demandsdifferentiation. In effect, the issuethat underpins these Coombes, Annie, 'Inventing the Post-Colonial: HybridiV and Constituency in Contem-
porary Curating ', ]\£m Xor-f7iarfons,
Winter (i99z), PP. 39-5z. See above.
three points is the same:there can be a tendency to homogeniseand to
createa mismatch betweena specific historical analysisand a generaltheo
retical position which are at odds with eachother. This is, in effect, the
issue that underpinned the critique of Said and the criticism Coombes

"i=Xl;;GGS;Z $:: n
makes of the way in which 'hybridity ' has been used generically.
This kind of critique does not, of course, argue against postcolonia-
lism as a method, but rather for a refinement of and a greater reflection on
its theoreticalbasis.It is not surprisingthat eachof the issuesThomas
apps"'"'- 'f SM meth.:'.:«-;ud ml«-. ' M'r-'J«-' G,80 PP ' ''"' A-
identifies is, in effect, a symptom of the hermeneutic problem with which
this book has been so concerned. In order to produce increasinglycomplex
and historically specific accounts of a particular artwork or moment, one Said, Edwmd, O,f':-:tn/f;m(Land'n: Roudedge & Kegan Paul. :97..). One of the Gou-ding
has to give up any possibility of a general historical account from a post-
Smith, Bernard, -European
Hslonandrbf So#rfEargt, i965--i85o(Oxford: Clarendon Press, ig6o).
colonial perspective,since this can only lead to reductive claims about
visualaly and important analysisof cross-culturalencounters
culture. '"' and
'' their effect on
'b-' b-"".' un
'colonial discourse ' or racism. One might even argue that postcolonialism's
greaterconcernGorits political statusthan its theoreticalcoherenceis an
explicit recognition of this. Ending with postcolonialismin our surveyof
approaches,we seeexactly how far art history has come since its beginnings.
Postcolonialism demonstratesvery clearly exactlyhow much is gainedwhen
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Young, Robert, ideologies of the Postcolonial', /nfewmfiofz.r,
vol I no : r:
one jettisons attempts to universdise history; the decline of the mono- introduction to sometheoreticaldebatesin the field. ' vvv '/. ' - -u----"