Biennials, Triennials, and Documenta
The Exhibitions that Created Contemporary Art

Anthony Gardner (Author), Charles Green (Author)

9781444336641, Wiley

Hardback, published 3 June 2016

304 pages
23.6 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.617 kg

"Biennials, Triennials and Documenta is an excellent introduction to the history of the globalization of biennials or biennalization. Green and Gardner cover all major biennial-type events and their constellations that emerged on the five continents: Documenta, Manifesta, Tirana, and Venice Biennales, among others, in Europe; in South America, the São Paulo Bienal and Bienal de La Habana; the Johannesburg Biennale in Africa; the Biennale of Sydney and Asia-Pacific Triennial, among others, in Australia; and Gwangju, Shanghai, and Istanbul Biennials in Asia." - H-Net:  Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online, July 2019

This innovative new history examines in-depth how the growing popularity of large-scale international survey exhibitions, or 'biennials', has influenced global contemporary art since the 1950s.

• Provides a comprehensive global history of biennialization from the rise of the European star-curator in the 1970s to the emergence of mega-exhibitions in Asia in the 1990s
• Introduces a global array of case studies to illustrate the trajectory of biennials and their growing influence on artistic expression, from the Biennale de la Méditerranée in Alexandria, Egypt in 1955, the second Havana Biennial of 1986, New York’s Whitney Biennial in 1993, and the 2002 Documenta11 in Kassel, to the Gwangju Biennale of 2014
• Explores the evolving curatorial approaches to biennials, including analysis of the roles of sponsors, philanthropists and biennial directors and their re-shaping of the contemporary art scene
• Uses the history of biennials as a means of illustrating and inciting further discussions of globalization in contemporary art

Preface vii

Introduction 3

Subject Areas: Museology & heritage studies [GM]