In our truly globalized world of the 21st century, 'world art' can finally take its place on center stage. Yet there remains a pressing need for a theoretically-informed and historically wide-ranging study of key changes in the relationship between the modern Western artistic canon and those it has traditionally excluded. Western Art and the Wider World explores the origins, influences, and evolving relationship between the Western canon of art as it has developed since the Renaissance and the art and culture of other societies--including those in the Islamic world, the Far East, Australasia, Africa and the Americas. Chapters explore a wide range of topics at the intersection of Western and non-Western artistic traditions, including such themes as the Renaissance encounter with the Ottoman Empire, the debate over Orientalism, the impact of Japanese art on the 19th-century French avant-garde, and the much disputed discourse of 'primitivism.' A concluding chapter offers fresh insights into contemporary debates about the globalization of art practice and the disputed notion of a 'world art history.' Western Art and the Wider World makes great strides in furthering the intellectual discussion on the changing relationship between Western and non-Western art throughout the extended modern period.