The Political Power of Visual Art: Liberty, Solidarity, and Rights

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The politics of visibility : Lurie and Ranciere -- Art and the mining of diamonds : Kentridge, Modisakeng and what is meant by politics -- The politics of the witness : Georges Gittoes -- Virulent nationalism and the politics of offense : the NEA -- Literature and the politics of the Truth Commission : Dorfman and Coetzee -- Identity politics in a consumerist world -- Art market politics : Manet to Banksy -- Autonomy as negotiation : Mozart reconsidered -- Film, the individual and the collective.

"Visual art has a ubiquitous political cast today. But which politics? Daniel Herwitz seeks clarity on what is meant by politics, and how we can evaluate its presumption or aspiration in contemporary art. Drawing on the work of William Kentridge, drenched in war, violence and race and the artworld immolations of Bansky, Herwitz's examples range from the NEA 4 and the question of offense-as-dissent, to M.F. Husain and the Hindu nationalist Indian right wing. He is interested in understanding art practices today in the light of two opposing inheritances: the avant-gardes and their politicization of the experimental art object, and apolitical 18th-century aesthetics. His historically-informed approach reveals how crucial this pair of legacies is to reading the tensions in voice and character of art today. Driven by questions about the capacity of the visual medium to speak politically or acquire political agency , Hertwitz's book is for anyone working in aesthetics or the art world concerned with the fate of cultural politics in a world spinning out of control, yet within reach of emancipation"-- Provided by publisher.