Contrapuntal Modernisms. Modeling Situated Transnational Art Histories in Paris and London

Mobile Subjects: Contrapuntal Modernisms (MSCM) examines the movement of artists from decolonizing regions through the colonial artistic hubs of London and Paris during the postwar era. This tale of two cities explores how London and Paris served as critical meeting points, anticolonial hubs, and centers of exchange driven by postwar mass migration. It introduces a new analytical framework that views metropoles not as origins or global training grounds, but as intersections and conduits of flow, offering insight into the transnational nature of modern art. By working with data on artists who were “exceptional but not exceptions” (Spies Gans 2018), MSCM seeks to challenge the colonial archive by highlighting its characteristic ambiguities, uncertainties, biases, and gaps. Our project emphasizes the “situatedness” of the data (Lavin 2021) and the database structures, which we translate into interactive visual models that challenge definitions of nation and identity. Combining network and spatiotemporal data visualization methodologies at the intersection of art practice and digital humanities illuminates the interconnectedness of the relational database we built, emphasizing (rather than erasing) inconsistencies, biases, and omissions.