Impulses of Modernism and Imperialism

I can't help but wonder if modernism itself can't also be seen as part of, or rather an outgrowth of, the same impulses that gave birth to imperialism, given that others have already noted, with the aid of Fanon's polemic article, the violence inherent in both systems/ideologies. The impulses being those of modernity; a willful questioning of and destabilizing of the status quo in the case of modernism, and out-and-out economic exploitation in the case of imperialism. In fact, on could say that modernism is in large part a result of the fruits of imperialism (one thinks back to Gikandi's article on Picasso and his relation with African art), and by playing on those motifs, modernism does violence to the representations of the colonized.

Folks complain of their posts getting longer; mine keep getting shorter. Way to buck the trend, me?

- Yingzhao