Open research questions in Art, Politics, and Modernism
212 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,276 Art, Politics, and Modernism papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
The difficulties of McCahon's working conditions prior to 1971 have been emphasized by scholars, but his transition to full-time painting has not been fully explored. The role of distractions in McCahon's painting process has not been fully understood.
Colin McCahon’s 1971 exhibition View from the Top of the Cliff and necessary distractions · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the study of the transformation of folk toys into contemporary author's dolls. The paper highlights the need to examine the artistic and semantic features of ethnodesign in the context of contemporary decorative art.
DESIGN OF TETYANA POKOTYLO’S AUTHORIAL DOLLS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DECORATIVE ART · 2026 · DOIFuture research could explore the influence of other artists on Malevich's work. The study suggests further analysis of the conceptual importance of symbolic forms in avant-garde art.
The paper identifies a gap in research on the relationship between Čiurlionis's and Malevich's work. The study highlights the need for further analysis of the influence of Čiurlionis's artistic legacy on Malevich's Suprematist theory.
The study identifies a gap in the analysis of minimalist elements in cinema. The gap is addressed by examining the use of analytical minimalism in Michelangelo Frammartino's film Il Buco (2021).
The preservation and promotion of Sohrai painting faces challenges due to urbanization and cultural homogenization. The paper identifies a need for support and empowerment of local artists and communities.
There is a need for further research on the history and cultural significance of Sohrai painting. The paper identifies a gap in existing literature on the preservation and promotion of traditional art forms in Jharkhand.
Future research can build on the paper's analysis of the exhibition's catalog and audiovisual records. Future research can explore the application of the paper's findings to other artistic works. Future research can investigate the role of the archive in other artistic contexts.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how artists mobilize the archive. The paper notes that prior work on archive theory has not fully addressed the role of the artist in mobilizing the archive.
Future research should focus on promoting a more inclusive understanding of European art practices. Future research should explore the complexities of Eastern European art amidst significant geopolitical changes. Future research should examine the impact of the marginalization of Eastern European art and artists on the region's cultural identity.
The Cold War Is Over, and It Made Us Even Colder: Art and Artists Between Eastern and Western Europe from 1945 until 2025 · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the understanding of Eastern European art and its marginalization in international art venues and narratives. The paper identifies a gap in the representation of Eastern European art and artists in major international art venues and narratives.
The Cold War Is Over, and It Made Us Even Colder: Art and Artists Between Eastern and Western Europe from 1945 until 2025 · 2026 · DOIThe study addresses a research gap concerning the limited studies that examine the integration of materiality, performance, and digital media in the analysis of female body representation.
The Female Body Between Materiality, Performance, and Digital Media: An Analytical Study of the Exhibition Le Non-corps · 2026 · DOIThe challenge of maintaining autonomy and self-critique in the face of institutional pressures. The difficulty of situating institutional practices within global discourses on socially engaged art, political ecology, and urban critique. The need to balance artistic and cultural production with a commitment to economic and social justice principles.
Further examination of Rotor's institutional practice and its methodology in fostering a resilient human ecology. Application of Rotor's model to other contexts, promoting economic and social justice principles. Investigation of the impact of Rotor's practice on the local community and the broader art world.
Future research could explore the relationship between art and kitsch in other cultural contexts. Future research could examine the impact of mass society and conspicuous consumption on the production and consumption of art and kitsch.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the relationship between art and kitsch in Brazilian cultural formation. The paper highlights the need to consider the social and cultural context of art and kitsch.
Future research can explore the application of Merleau-Ponty's concept of sensation to other art forms. The relationship between Merleau-Ponty's philosophy and other modernist movements can be further investigated.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, particularly his concept of sensation. The paper highlights the need to explore the relationship between Merleau-Ponty's philosophy and modernist painting.
The case study draws on interview data with 46 key stakeholders (including commissioners, activists, and residents) to contribute new insights into public art’s queer afterlives in an underexplored Central European setting.
While making a timely contribution to Xu Bing scholarship by focusing on an understudied work in his oeuvre, it also adds new lines of inquiry: first, with regard to text-image reciprocity, which continues to be a focal point in studies of contemporary Chinese art; and second, with regard to animation-calligraphy reciprocity, which begs more critical attention.
iurlionis' painting connections with the trends of modernist art were not limited to the developmental tendency of the emerging early modernism directions, usually discussed in iurlionistics, arising from various neo-romantic directions, firstly from symbolism and leading to the rise of abstraction.
Despite Manet’s desire to be \naccepted by artistic authorities, his innovative approach in the context and style which can be thought \nin the scope of art for the sake of art in his paintings was not understood.
Now definitively liberated from the enduring legend that the publication of L’Œuvre (1886) ended Zola and Cézanne’s lifelong friendship, that relationship needs to be explored from a number of other perspectives.
Discourse on animation from the African continent is scarce, with only a few key scholars directing their attention to sub-Saharan animation artists at large (Bazzoli 2003; Bendazzi 2004; Callus 2010a, 2010b, 2012; Convents 2003, 2014; Edera 1993, 1996).
Animation, Fabrication, Photography: Reflections upon the Intersecting Practices of Sub-Saharan Artists within the Moving Image · 2015 · DOIExpatriate artist Frances Mary Hodgkins (1869–1947) has been the focus of numerous art historical studies; however, very little is known about her painting practices.
Primarily a water colourist? The materials and techniques of Frances Hodgkins' watercolour and gouache works on paper · 2009 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Art, Politics, and Modernism
- Showing seeing: a critique of visual culture · Journal of Visual Culture · 2002 · 315 citations
- Concerning imagery. · Psychological Review · 1968 · 311 citations
- "Context Stinks!" · New Literary History · 2011 · 159 citations
- “Presence”in Absentia · Art Journal · 1997 · 157 citations
- Microvenus · Art Journal · 1996 · 147 citations
- The Childhood of the Artist · The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child · 1957 · 121 citations
- DEFINING ART HISTORICALLY · The British Journal of Aesthetics · 1979 · 97 citations
- Contemporary Art and Contemporaneity · Critical Inquiry · 2006 · 94 citations
- Toward a poetics of air: sequencing and surfacing breath · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · 2015 · 84 citations
- A Model-Theoretic Account of Representation (Or, I Don't Know Much about Art…but I Know It Involves Isomorphism) · Philosophy of Science · 2003 · 84 citations
Most recent work
- Murals and neighborhoods: The impact of public art in Philadelphia · Cities · 2026
- Colin McCahon’s 1971 exhibition View from the Top of the Cliff and necessary distractions · Tuhinga · 2026
- DESIGN OF TETYANA POKOTYLO’S AUTHORIAL DOLLS IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DECORATIVE ART · STREDOEVROPSKY VESTNiK PRO VEDU А VYZKUM · 2026
- THE ROLE OF THE CREATIVE INDIVIDUAL STYLE IN THE APPLICATION OF ARTISTIC PSYCHOLOGISM. · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
- Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Art Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance · Social Education · 2026
- Review: Today Is Always Yesterday: Contemporary Brazilian Art , by Michael Asbury · Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture · 2026
- Six Encounters with Bolzano’s Aesthetics · Estetika The European Journal of Aesthetics · 2026
- Čiurlionio juodojo kvadrato transformacijos Malevičiaus suprematizme · LOGOS · 2026
- An Approach to Analytical Minimalism in Cinema: Il Buco (2021) · Erciyes İletişim Dergisi · 2026
- Nikifor’s Work at the Krynica Zdrój Museum as an Example of Twentieth-Century Lemko Naive Painting · Muzeológia a kultúrne dedičstvo · 2026
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