Jessica Lack

Jessica Lack introduces fifty pioneering modern and contemporary art movements born out of political engagement, decolonization, marginalization or conflict. These movements have aimed to revitalize society by challenging the status quo. While not as well known as Pop Art, Dada and Futurism, these associations of artists - such as the Saqqakhaneh artists of Iran, the Stridentists of Mexico, Jikken Kobo of Japan or America's AfriCobra - have empowered and given voice to their members.

Global Art brings unfamiliar material to life by exploring the unique historical context for each art movement, key cultural events and interconnections, and the key protagonists in the movement's evolution.

'Art is not a luxury. Art is a basic social need to which everyone has a right'.This extraordinary collection of 100 artists' manifestos from across the globe over the last 100 years brings together activists, post-colonialists, surrealists, socialists, nihilists and a host of other voices. From the Negritude movement in Africa and Martinique to Brazil's Mud/Meat Sewer Manifesto, from Iraqi modernism to Australia's Cyberfeminist Manifesto, they are by turns personal, political, utopian, angry, sublime and revolutionary. Some have not been published in English before; some were written in climates of censorship and brutality; some contain visions of a future still on the horizon. What unites them is the belief that art can change the world.