ABSTRACT
Art in contemporary Melanesia has multiple sources. It comprises forms of art within a traditional context, commercialised artefacts and urban popular art as well as academic art. Although the comparison of concepts like traditional and modern, rural and urban, folk art and high art is a common practice in European art history, it does not do justice to the typical character of contemporary Melanesian art. This chapter focuses on new artistic forms which arose in an urban context and were essentially moulded by indigenous, but also expatriate intellectuals in arts and politics during the process of decolonisation. Therefore, the term ‘contemporary art’ is used, here, in relation to new art practices influenced by Western modernism.
