Dark Matter: Art And Politics In The Age Of Enterprise Culture (Marxism and Culture) - Hardcover

Sholette, Gregory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745327532 ISBN 13: 9780745327532

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2011

Synopsis

Art is big business, with some artists able to command huge sums of money for their works, while the vast majority are ignored or dismissed by critics. This book shows that these marginalised artists, the 'dark matter' of the art world, are essential to the survival of the mainstream and that they frequently organize in opposition to it.

Gregory Sholette, a politically engaged artist, argues that imagination and creativity in the art world originate thrive in the non-commercial sector shut off from prestigious galleries and champagne receptions. This broader creative culture feeds the mainstream with new forms and styles that can be commodified and used to sustain the few artists admitted into the elite.

This dependency, and the advent of inexpensive communication, audio and video technology, has allowed this 'dark matter' of the alternative art world to increasingly subvert the mainstream and intervene politically as both new and old forms of non-capitalist, public art. This book is essential for anyone interested in interventionist art, collectivism, and the political economy of the art world.

About this title

Review:

'With great verve and urgency, Gregory Sholette explores the economics of contemporary art production in an era of neoliberalism, and outlines the promises and pitfalls of various tactics of resistance. Dark Matter is a salient call-to-arms to all cultural labourers.' Julia Bryan-Wilson, author of Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era (University of California Press, 2011)

About the Author:

Gregory Sholette is a New York City based artist, writer and core member of the activist art collective Gulf Labor Coalition. He is the author of Delirium and Resistance (Pluto, 2017), Dark Matter (Pluto, 2010) and co-author of It's The Political Economy, Stupid (Pluto, 2013). He currently teaches in the Queens College Art Department, City University of New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0745327532
• ISBN 13: 9780745327532
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264