Full Description
This collection examines key aesthetic avant-garde art movements of the twentieth century and their relationships with revolutionary politics. The contributors distinguish aesthetic avant-gardes -whose artists aim to transform society and the ways of sensing the world through political means-from the artistic avant-gardes, which focus on transforming representation. Following the work of philosophers such as Friedrich Schiller and Jacques RanciÈre, the contributors argue that the aesthetic is inherently political and that aesthetic avant-garde art is essential for political revolution. In addition to analyzing Russian constructivsm, surrealism, and Situationist International, the contributors examine Italian futurism's model of integrating art with politics and life, the murals of revolutionary Mexico and Nicaragua, 1960s American art, and the Slovenian art collective NSK's construction of a fictional political state in the 1990s. Aesthetic Revolutions and Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde Movements traces the common foundations and goals shared by these disparate arts communities and shows how their art worked towards effecting political and social change.
Contributors. John E. Bowlt, Sascha Bru, David Craven, AleŠ Erjavec, Tyrus Miller, Raymond Spiteri, MiŠko Šuvakovic
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction. AleŠ Erjavec 1
1. Politics as the Art of the Impossible: The Heteronomy of Italian Futurist Art-Action / Sascha Bru 19
2. 5 X 5 = 25? The Science of Constructivism / John E. Bowlt 42
3. Convulsive Beauty: Surrealism as Aesthetic Revolution / Raymond Spiteri 80
4. Aesthetic Avant-Gardes and Revolutionary Movements from Modern Latin America / David Craven 113
5. All along the Watchtower: Aesthetic Revolution in the United States during the 1960s / Tyrus Miller 145
6. From Unitary Urbanism to the Society of the Spectacle: The Situationist Aesthetic Revolution / Raymond Spiteri 178
7. NSK: Cricial Phenomenology of the State / MiŠko Šuvakovic 215
Conclusion. Avant-Gardes, Revolutions, and Aesthetics / AleŠ Erjavec 255
Bibliography 287
Contributors 311
Index 313
