The Nordics (Norden) are often conceived as a region united by social, cultural, and linguistic affinities, sharing a history not only of alliances but also of geopolitical conflicts. This special issue of Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History interrogates the understanding of modern and contemporary Nordic art and architecture in light of historically shifting cultural exchanges and contexts, as well as in relation to broader contemporary debates concerned with diversifying and globalising art’s histories – whether through methods of decentring, horizontalising, provincialising, or decolonising.Footnote1

The issue seeks to explore transregional exchanges and connections across, and beyond, the Nordic region, while also critically engaging with artistic practices that challenge or resist notions of regional connectivity and cultural coherence. Moreover, it aims to problematise the assumption that theoretical, methodological, and historiographical models of Western art history offer a universally applicable template for regional or ostensibly peripheral art histories – a historiographical domain to which Nordic art history arguably belongs.

The conceptualisation of the theme for this special issue is indebted to the growing research interest in cultural transfer, cross-border studies, and critical art geography as well as to the recurring calls for a global(ised) art history in recent decades. These developments have, with painful clarity, revealed the extent to which modern(ist) art historiography must be deconstructed and structurally reconfigured, having long served to homogenise the narratives and understanding of modern and contemporary art.Footnote2 These debates form the backdrop for both the use of the term transregional and the understanding of the Nordics as a potentially productive point of departure for studies of cross-border connections – or their absence – that may challenge established narratives. In this introduction, I briefly outline some of the strands of thought within this field of research that appear particularly pertinent to a transregional approach to the study of art and architecture across (and beyond) the Nordic countries.