The Utopian Globalists

Beschreibung

This innovative and revealing history examines artists whose work embodies notions of revolution and human social transformation. The clearly structured historical narrative takes the reader on a cultural odyssey that begins with Vladimir Tatlin's constructivist 'Monument to the Third International' (1919), a statement of utopian globalist intent, via Picasso's 1940s commitment to Soviet Communism and John and Yoko's Montreal 'Bed-in', to what the author calls the 'late globalism' of the Unilever Series at London's Tate Modern. The book maps the ways artists and their work engaged with, and offered commentary on, modern spectacle in both capitalist and socialist modernism, throughout the eras of the Russian revolution, the Cold War and the increasingly globalized world of the last 20 years. In doing so, Harris explores the idea that the utopian-globalist lineage in art remains torn between its yearning for freedom and a deepening identification with spectacle as a media commodity to be traded and consumed.
An innovative history and critical account mapping the ways artists and their works have engaged with, and offered commentary on, modern spectacle in both capitalist and socialist modernism over the past ninety years. * Focuses on artists whose work expresses the concept of revolutionary social transformation * Provides a strong historical narrative that adds structure and clarity * Features a cogent and innovative critique of contemporary art and institutions * Covers 100 years of art from Vladimir Tatlin's constructivist 'Monument to the Third International', to Picasso's late 1940s commitment to Communism, to the Unilever Series sponsored Large Artworks installed at London's Tate Modern since 2000. * Includes the only substantial account in print of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 Montreal 'Bed-in' * Offers an accessible description and interpretation of Debord's 'society of the spectacle' theory

Autor*in

Jonathan Harris

Themen in »The Utopian Globalists«

Art & Applied Arts Art History & Criticism Kunst u. Angewandte Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte u. -kritik

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"Though theoretically sophisticated, this volume is accessible and engaging. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through professionals/practitioners." (Choice, 1 September 2013)
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