A Socialist Critique of Art History in the U.S.A.

Abstract

The socialist critique of art history derives from the fact that the making, distribution and appreciation of art in Western societies has become an extension of capitalist economics and that therefore the conditions applying to capitalist modes of production and consumption apply also in the realm of aesthetics. The nature of this new relationship between artists, middlemen and the general public tends to be obscured or ignored by traditional art scholarship that analyzes styles and schools of art mainly in terms of pre-capitalist economics. The history of art as a discipline does not seem capable of dealing with new artistic technologies and new relationships between artists, art consumers and the modern impressarios of mass culture who have no obvious counterparts in European history during the main periods into which art history has been divided. As a result, art historical writing and teaching fail to provide the public with adequate conceptual tools to deal with the present significance of art. By treating the history of contemporary art much as it treats medieval or Renaissance art, historians continue to emphasize the privileged character of art objects and their status as a precious commodity in a market of fluctuating pecuniary values. Unfortunately, this approach does not come to grips with the character of inexpensively reproduced imagery as it affects the behavior of members of the general public. Furthermore, in their analysis of traditional works of art as models of ‘quality’, art historians serve the interests of collectors and investors more than the interests of students and of the general public who need to understand the visual sources of their social and spiritual situation.