A brief history of the masses: (three revolutions)

Abstract

Stefan Jonsson uses three monumental works of art to build a provocative history of popular revolt: Jacques-Louis David's The Tennis Court Oath (1791), James Ensor's Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 (1888), and Alfredo Jaar's They Loved It So Much, Revolution (1989). Addressing, respectively, French Revolution of 1789, Belgium's proletarian messianism in 1880s, and worldwide rebellions and revolutions of 1968, these canonical images not only depict an alternative view of history but offer a new understanding of relationship between art and politics and revolutionary nature of true democracy.Drawing on examples from literature, politics, philosophy, and other works of art, Jonsson carefully constructs his portrait, revealing surprising parallels between political representation of the people in government and their aesthetic representation in painting. Both essentially people, Jonsson argues, defining them as elites or masses, responsible citizens or angry mobs. Yet in aesthetic fantasies of David, Ensor, and Jaar, Jonsson finds a different understanding of democracy-one in which human collectives break frame and enter picture.Connecting achievements and failures of past revolutions to current political issues, Jonsson then situates our present moment in a long historical drama of popular unrest, making his book both a cultural history and a contemporary discussion about fate of democracy in our globalized world.