Anarchy And Art

by Antliff, Allan

• ISBN13: 9781551522074
• ISBN10: 1551522071
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-01
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Pr Ltd

Summary

One of the powers of art is its ability to convey the human aspects of political events, ranging from war to revolution to sexual liberation. Art also has the power to transform society, a theme that pervades this fascinating survey on art, artists, and anarchism since the nineteenth century. In numerous essays, Allan Antliff interrogates moments of engagement when anarchist artists, poets, philosophers, and critics have confronted pivotal events over the past 135 years. The survey begins with Gustave Courbet's activism during the 1871 Paris Commune (which established the modern-day French republic), and ends with an examination of anarchist art during the fall of the Soviet empire. Other subjects include the Dada movement, Picasso's Guernica , 1960s activism, and the West Coast Beats. Throughout, Antliff vividly explores art's potential as a vehicle for social change, and how it can shape the very nature of political events, both historic and present-day. Well-informed and approachable, Anarchy and Art is a book for political junkies and art aficionados alike. Allan Antliff is the author of Anarchist Modernism and editor of Only a Beginning: An Anarchist Anthology. He teaches in the history in art department of the University of Victoria, Canada.

Author Biography

Allan Antliff is Canada Research Chair in Modern Art at the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, Canada.

Table of Contents

A beautiful dream : Courbet's realism and the Paris commune of 1871	p. 17
Wandering : neo-impressionists and depictions of the dispossessed	p. 37
Obscenity: the advent of Dada in New York	p. 49
True creators : Russian artists of the anarchist revolution	p. 71
Death to art! : the post-anarchist aftermath	p. 97
Gay anarchy : sexual politics in the crucible of McCarthyism	p. 113
Breakout from the prison house of modernism : an interview with Susan Simensky Bietila	p. 133
With open eyes : anarchism and the fall of the Berlin wall	p. 181
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.