Biennials, Triennials, and Documenta: The Exhibitions that Created Contemporary Art

In this engaging and insightful new treatise, Charles Green and Anthony Gardner examine in-depth the history and popularization of large-scale international survey exhibitions, or “biennials”, and their impact on contemporary art since the 1950s. From the 1972 director-driven documenta 5 at Kassel to the rise of mega-exhibitions across Asia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the renewed ascendancy of gargantuan biennials in the 21^st century, Biennials, Triennials and Documenta offers a comprehensive history of biennialization that is global in scope. In addition to interrogating specific curatorial models and methods, Green and Gardner use the history of biennials as a means of illustrating and inciting further discussions of globalization in contemporary art.

With a comprehensive global array of case studies seamlessly connected through shrewd narrative analysis, this innovative new book will be essential reading for curatorial and museum studies students and scholars, aspiring curators, gallerists, and all those interested in the exhibition of contemporary art.