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Paperback • 144 Pages • Size: 200 × 130 mm
20 B&W illustrations
ISBN: 9781848224414 • Publication: July 02, 2021
Series: New Directions in Contemporary Art

The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art

Gregory Sholette

 

£19.99 GBP

Available for preorder: this book will be shipped on its publication date of July 02, 2021

  • A timely and accessible exploration of contemporary activist art and artistic activism by a respected scholar and practitioner of many years' standing

Description

Since the global financial crash of 2008, artists have become
increasingly engaged in a wide range of cultural activism targeted against
capitalism, political authoritarianism, colonial legacies, gentrification, but
also in opposition to their own exploitation. They have also absorbed and reflected
forms of protest within their art practice itself. The Art of Activism and
the Activism of Art maps, critiques, celebrates and historicises activist
art, exploring its current urgency alongside the processes which have given
rise to activism by artists, and activist forms of art.



Author Gregory Sholette approaches his subject from the unusual
dual perspective of commentator (as scholar and writer) and insider (as activist
artist). He describes a new wave of activist art taking place not only within community-based protest groups, as it has for decades, but also amongst
professionally trained, MFA-bearing art practitioners, many of whom, by choice
or by circumstance, refuse to respect the conventional borders separating
painting from protest, or art from utility. The book explores the subtle distinction
between activist forms of art and protest by artists, and proposes that
contemporary activist art and art activism constitute a broader paradigm shift
that reflects the crisis of contemporary capitalism.



 



 

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