The dialectics of art / John Molyneux.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Molyneux, John, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art--Political aspects.

Art.

Art and society.

Capitalism.

Dialectic in art.

Physical Description:

xv, 271 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago, IL : Haymarket Books, 2020.

Summary:

In a sweeping survey of art from the dawn of the bourgeois era to the present day, John Molyneux explains what makes artistic production under capitalism unique, moving, and possibly revolutionary. To the question of "What is art?", it is often simply responded that art is whatever is produced by the artist. For John Molyneux, this clearly circular answer is deeply unsatisfying. In a tour de force spanning renaissance Italy and the Dutch Republic to contemporary leading figures, The Dialectics of Art instead approaches its subject matter as a distinct field of creative human labour that emerges alongside and in opposition to the alienation and commodification brought about by capitalism. The pieces and individuals Molyneux examines from Michelangelo's Slaves to Rembrandt's Jewish Bride to the vast drip paintings of Jackson Pollock are presented as embodying the social contradictions of their times, giving art an inherently political relevance. In its relationship of creative and dialectical tension to prevailing social relationships and norms, such art points beyond the existing order of things, hinting at a potential future society not based on alienated labour in which creative production becomes the property and practice of all.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. What Is Art?

2. How We Judge Art

3. Michelangelo and Human Emancipation

4. Rembrandt and Revolution

5. A Revolution in Paint: One Hundred Years of Picasso's Demoiselles

6. State of the Art: A Review of the Sensation Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, September-December 1997

7. The Emin Phenomenon or the Phenomenal Emin

8. The Liberty of Appearing: The Photographs of Yasser Alwan

9. Shorter Reviews

Jackson Pollock

Andy Warhol

Francis Bacon

Peter Paul Rubens

10. How Art Develops

11. The Dialectics of Modernism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1642592552

9781642592559

9781642591316

1642591319

OCLC:

1120095285