Art Rebels: Race, Class, and Gender in the Art of Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese

Abstract

In Art Rebels: Race, Class, and Gender in the Art of Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese, Paul Lopes digs deep into what he calls the “public stories” of two artists to illuminate an analysis of the Bourdieusian concept of the Heroic Age of art. Lopes argues that the Heroic Age of American Art, a time when independent entrepreneurial artists became a permanent fixture of the American art world, emerged in the 1940s–1970s. By focusing on artists’ autonomy, innovation, and the interplay of the artist’s identity in society, Lopes examines how the Heroic Age is exemplified in the careers of jazz musician Miles Davis and film director Martin Scorsese. The book is a strong example of a Millsian analysis of the interplay of biography and history within the creative industries. Lopes introduces the concept of a public story as collective narratives crafted by critics, journalists, and artists themselves that contribute to the structured meanings of artists and their work in society. Ultimately, such public stories unfold over time and shape the production and reception of artists’ work. He simultaneously uses the concept of biographical legend, the joining of an artist’s career with personal biographical details, to answer the question of what such public stories and biographical legends tell us about the Heroic Age of American Art. The ambitious empirical approach that Lopes employs led him to collect and inductively code over 3,000 documents and artistic works from the 1940s to the present that make up the public stories of both Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese.