I entered this week's reading with  very little understanding of post-colonialism, and even less of how it applied to art. I found Gerado Mosquera's article to be most helpful, especially in discussion about the role of contemporary foreign art: "Postmodern interest in the Other has opened some space in the "high art" circuits for vernacular and non-Western cultures."(Kocur 220). I was curious to see what sort of art was being produced to cater to this interest in foreign art. The reading mentioned the Cuban artist Jose Bedia, who is described as "...making Western culture from non-Western sources..."(Kocur 221), which I find to be an impressive feat.

  

  Bedia's art does indeed seem to live up the description above, incorporating modern, Western abstraction and painterly styles with themes lifted from what seems to be folklore and myth from non-Western history. His work can also be seen as exploring non-Western views of the Western world (Kocur 221). This can be seen in his looming, dark paintings of American aircraft carriers,  explained in an article in Art Forum: "The carrier's oddly surreal form puts one in mind of American military power at its most relentless."(http://www.georgeadamsgallery.com/artworks/Jose_Bedia/pdf/229_art.pdf) Other than that,  I read a number of articles and websites, looking for information that could help clarify the direction behind his other paintings, but found not much more than tepid descriptions of the paintings themselves. Perhaps someone found something else I overlooked? Either way, I think Bedia's work is strong example of post-colonialism as a theme in contemporary art.  

Kocur, Zoya, and Simon Leung. "Theories in Contemporary Art since 1985". Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. p 218-225.

George Adams Gallery, "Jose Bedia". http://www.georgeadamsgallery.com/artworks/Jose_Bedia/pdf/229_art.pdf.

image:

http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images/19/1780.jpg