Who spoke of the modern? When was the modern written? How was it written? How was it received? This collection features texts spanning the late 19th to late 20th centuries, selected by a group of scholars as responses to questions such as these. They have been written by artists, critics, historians and curators in several languages, many of which are never before translated into the English language. Years in the making, this publication is the first to represent such breadth and depth of art writing in the region of Southeast Asia, and will be a valuable resource to students, teachers and scholars of Southeast Asian studies.