Compression vs. Expression: Containing and Explaining the World's Art (Clark Studies in the Visual Arts) Book

How do we do justice to art when we treat it not as a discrete European or other regional tradition, but as a worldwide phenomenon with a long history? In this groundbreaking book, leading academics, curators, bibliographers, and representatives of international organizations from every continent explain the ways they deal with the conflict between the need to compress and the desire to express. Anyone who faces this challenge, whether in developing a course at university or school, writing a textbook, installing a museum collection, mounting an exhibition, or otherwise presenting the worldâ??s cultural heritage will want to read it.

John Onians is professor and director of the World Art Research Programme in the School of World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia and former director of Research and Academic Programs at the Clark Art Institute.