معرفی
Joshua Cohen is a Lecturer at the Graduate Center, CUNY University, New York. He specializes in Modern Art, with a focus on Postcolonial Studies, Decolonial Theory, and the intersections of African Diaspora with Art History.
On May 14, 2024, he delivered a lecture titled Primitivism and its Contradictions at the University of Zurich. The lecture critically examined the term 'primitivism' within art history, highlighting its inconsistent historical applications and its role in debates surrounding colonialism, African sculpture, and Afromodernist responses like those of Alain Locke during the Harlem Renaissance. Cohen emphasized the need for a meta-critical genealogy of the term, noting its overexpansion in contemporary discourse.
His research explores the tensions between European avant-garde movements and African art, challenging the 'primitive' label to reframe African sculpture as a classical influence in modernism. He engages comparative case studies to trace counter-narratives within the Harlem Renaissance and postcolonial art theory.
This lecture was organized by Prof. Dr. Bärbel Küster and Rosa Sancarlo as part of the Spring Semester 2024 lecture series on decolonial art history, with an abstract outlining his methodological and theoretical contributions to the field.
