Revolutionary Pants: Modern Garb as a Herald of Modern Art

How peculiar—in a good way—is Art & Trousers: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Asian Art (University of Chicago, 2021) by veteran curator and museum director David Elliott? First of all, the combination memoir, essay collection, and cultural history covers areas little discussed in putatively “global contemporary” art history and criticism. Yes, Elliott devotes roughly a third of his pages to East Asian art stars like Cai Guo-Qiang and Ai Weiwei, as well as som