Partha's recent work has concerned the debates on the interface between East and West and the problematic nature of cultural exchanges that have assumed a fresh urgency today because of the increasing globalization of culture. The last two decades have witnessed serious soul searching among art historians about the future of the discipline faced with the collapse of earlier certainties and the demise of art history as a grand Hegelian narrative.
The sheer heterogeneity of global contemporary art has given rise to uncertainties. And yet underneath such seeming confusion the dominance of the western canon continues, creating exclusions and inclusions and the uneven relationship between centre and periphery. Because of the changes in global geopolitics and the emergence of art market, biennales and artists from the peripheries we need to rethink art history which has lagged behind these momentous developments.