Residual Modernism: Karl Duldig and the Art of Displacement in Colonial Singapore Art History Research Lecture: Prof Noit Banai

Join us for Prof Noit Banai's Research Lecture on ‘Residual Modernism: Karl Duldig and the Art of Displacement in Colonial Singapore' in School 3 at 4pm and a reception afterwards at 79 North Street.

This lecture examines the 1939-1940 Singapore period of Jewish refugee sculptor Karl Duldig, investigating how displaced modernists navigated modernity and coloniality. Introducing the concept of “residual modernism”-the persistence of Viennese artistic training after displacement-Iargue that Duldig's practice was shaped by the simultaneous operation of unstable Jewish difference and precarious colonial privilege. Analyzing portraits and public commissions for diverse ethnic communities, I demonstrate how European artistic authority was mobilized within a graded colonial hierarchy. Ultimately, the paper reveals how modernism was rearticulated when detached from its original institutional context and transplanted into The Straits Settlements during a state of exception.

Dr. Noit Banai is Professor of Diaspora Aesthetics at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. An art historian and critic specializing in modern and contemporary art, her research focuses on migration, exile, diaspora, and statelessness. Her current book project, Stateless: Artistic Life in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 1933-1949, explores how displaced populations visually negotiated statelessness in three port cities. She is the author of Yves Klein and Being a Border, with writings featured in Artforum, Third Text, and major international museums. Banai has taught at universities worldwide, including NYU Shanghai, the University of Vienna, and Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts.