Artmaking in the Age of Global Capitalism: Visual Practices, Philosophy, Politics

Asks what political art look like today, and how art can act critically under neoliberalism

Explores the political and economic forces that began changing social realities from the 1970s forward

Digs down into these divisions to detail clashes between supposed writers, theorists and artists

Includes 4 extended essays on practices that respond critically to contemporary political and economic conditions

Offers an alternative approach to understanding art’s historical antecedents by avoiding received art-historical narratives or canonical figures

Will appeal to cross-disciplinary readers who are looking for critical distance from disciplinary limitations or confinement
Illustrated with photographs of works by Frances Bareett, Paul Klee, Jean Dubuffet, Angela Brennan, Alex Monteith and Sarah Munro

Jan Bryant looks at the strategies visual artists and filmmakers are using to criticise the social and economic conditions shaping our historical moment. She then assesses how the world is being positively re-imagined through their work today.

Located at the intersection of practice and theory, Bryant argues that an effective contemporary political aesthetics encompasses more than just analysis of a work’s conceptual or aesthetic reality. It should also consider the impact the artwork has at the point of reception, the methods adopted by the artists and the relationships they engender with communities.