I kontaktzonen mellem kunsthistorie og kolonihistorie

In a recent issue of Art History, editors Cathrine Grant and Dorothy Price ask what it would mean to think about art history and colonial history (and in particular decolonization) together. In this article, we continue this conversation in a Danish context, asking: What emerges if we approach Danish art history in light of colonial history and its material and conceptual logics? Our aim is to contribute to critical discussions of art history as discipline by attending to the “contact zones” (Pratt 1992) between art history and colonial history in a Danish and Nordic perspective. With a starting point in an analysis of “colonial ignorance” and methodological nationalism in Danish art history – and in the art museum in particular – the article analyzes two artworks in order to suggest how decolonial perspectives invite a renegotiation of what objects and questions are of relevance and value to art history today.