The article analyzes the contemporary art historical focus on multiple modernities through two significant exhibitions: After Year Zero at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2013/Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw 2015 and The World Goes Pop, Tate Modern, London (2015). These different exhibitions are aimed at re-reading the post-1945 era in a global context, discussing how arts and culture responded to a global modernity. The article emphasizes the overlapping interests in this by academic art history and criticism as well as museal and curatorial efforts and discusses the idea of curatorial research in these different approaches.