Humor in Global Contemporary Art

The first book to thoroughly examine the role of culture-specific and transcultural humor in contemporary art from a global perspective, Humor in Contemporary Art pursues a new line of research in world art studies. The volume examines the degree to which the humor in art created in the past five decades is culture-bound, as well as the tensions that arise when humorous artworks that are made in a particular socio-cultural context are viewed in another cultural environment.

In these times of globalization and biennialization, we are increasingly confronted with art from a variety of cultures and countries, a significant portion of which is humorous. Since the 1960s, an increasing number of artists from all corners of the world have applied humor in their work, not infrequently to ridicule such ethical transgressions-both local and global-as corruption, inequality, humiliation, greed, and abuse of power. Humor is universal in that it is found in all cultures and countries, yet it is also distinctly culture-specific. The tendency to joke and perceive something as humorous seems to be present in every culture, yet what is perceived as funny is distinctly relative. People of divergent cultures experience and use humor differently, and certain forms of humor can be found in some cultures, but not in others. It is precisely people's tendency to laugh when cultural expectations and conventions are subverted and when different value systems clash that lends humor the potential to go beyond boundaries, making it an especially relevant subject in the reflection on culture-specificity and globalization.