- London, London, City of, United Kingdom
Steve Edwards
Birkbeck College, University of London, History of Art, Faculty Member
- Art History, History of photography, Marxist theory, Capitalism, Social History, Contemporary Art, and 11 moreHistory of Science and Technology, 19th Century Britain, Feminism, Intellectual Property, History of Capitalism, Cultural Materialism, Nineteenth Century British Periodicals, Historical Materialism, Anti-Capitalism, Marxism, and Art Theory and Politicsedit
- Professor of History & Theory of Photography http://www.bbk.ac.uk/art-history/staff/teaching-staff/steve-edwards Vis... moreProfessor of History & Theory of Photography
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/art-history/staff/teaching-staff/steve-edwards
Visiting Professor, The Open University
Formerly, Professor of Art-History-Materialism at the Open University, UK.
Author of:
The Making of English Photography, Allegories (Pennsylvania University Press, 2006);
Photography: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2006); also available in Arabic, Farsi, Greek and Swedish;
Martha Rosler, The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems (Afterall, 2013).
Edited collections:
Adrian Rifkin: Communards and Other Cultural Histories, Brill, 2017/Haymarket 2018.
Luiz Renato Martins, The Conspiracy of Modern Art, Brill, 2017/ Haymarket 2018
Forthcoming books
Daguerreotypes: Patents/Portraits/Persons.
(with Gail Day) Allan Sekula's Amphibious Reality.
Forthcoming edited collections:
Fred Orton, Ideology, Painting, Revolution, Brill 2021
The Davidson Debate: Beyond Bourgeois Revolutions, Brill, 2022l
Editor of:
Oxford Art Journal;
Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory;
The Historical Materialism Book Series (Brill/Haymarket).edit
https://nonsite.org/white-collar-blues-allan-sekula-casts-an-eye-over-the-professional-managerial-class/ During the 1970s and early 1980s, Sekula built a theory and practice of photography on his understanding of the aporias inherent to... more
https://nonsite.org/white-collar-blues-allan-sekula-casts-an-eye-over-the-professional-managerial-class/
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Sekula built a theory and practice of photography on his understanding of the aporias inherent to the theory of the Professional-Managerial Class, paying particular attention to the figure of the engineer whose task is not confined to the reproduction of capitalist ideology, but plays a central role in the realisation of value.
This essay follows Sekula's reading on the PMC and examines three important works: 'Aerospace Folktales' (1973); 'School is a Factory' (1979–82) and the long essay “Photography Between Labour and Capital” (1983).
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Sekula built a theory and practice of photography on his understanding of the aporias inherent to the theory of the Professional-Managerial Class, paying particular attention to the figure of the engineer whose task is not confined to the reproduction of capitalist ideology, but plays a central role in the realisation of value.
This essay follows Sekula's reading on the PMC and examines three important works: 'Aerospace Folktales' (1973); 'School is a Factory' (1979–82) and the long essay “Photography Between Labour and Capital” (1983).
Research Interests:
Photographic history took root in the discipline of art history with its focus on pictures, and subsequent critical histories have largely retained this image-centred focus. Yet there is no inherent reason why the study of photography... more
Photographic history took root in the discipline of art history with its focus on pictures, and subsequent critical histories have largely retained this image-centred focus. Yet there is no inherent reason why the study of photography needed to become a history of pictures especially, as in some respects the images might not be the most important aspect of the practice. In recent years there has been a flurry of studies examining aspects of photographic industry and business arrangements. In this article I present some debates from the field of academic business history, which raise issues of relevance for historians of photography. Reese V. Jenkins’s influential study of Kodak, Image and Enterprise (1975), provides the opportunity for investigating some of these issues. A short conclusion on the English daguerreotype trade provides an illustration or coda to these themes.
Research Interests:
A contribution to an exhibition catalogue. The essay looks at photography and work in a global frame, employing the new histories of capitalism to question the narrative of large-scale industry, and thereby to question the existing ideas... more
A contribution to an exhibition catalogue. The essay looks at photography and work in a global frame, employing the new histories of capitalism to question the narrative of large-scale industry, and thereby to question the existing ideas of photographs of industry, work and modernity.
German: ‘Fotografie, Industrie, Arbeit’, Herausgegeben von Paul Mellenthin und Olga Osadtschy, Belichtungszeit: Fotografien aus der Sammlung Ruth und Peter Herzog, Kunstmuseum Basel/Christoph Marian Verlag, 2020, pp.268-81.
German: ‘Fotografie, Industrie, Arbeit’, Herausgegeben von Paul Mellenthin und Olga Osadtschy, Belichtungszeit: Fotografien aus der Sammlung Ruth und Peter Herzog, Kunstmuseum Basel/Christoph Marian Verlag, 2020, pp.268-81.
Research Interests:
This essay considers physical daguerreotype cases from the 1840s and 1850s alongside scholarly debate on case studies, or “thinking in cases”, and some recent physicalist claims about objects in cultural theory, particularly those... more
This essay considers physical daguerreotype cases from the 1840s and 1850s alongside scholarly debate on case studies, or “thinking in cases”, and some recent physicalist claims about objects in cultural theory, particularly those associated with “new materialism”. Throughout the essay, these three distinct strands are braided together to interrogate particular objects and broader questions of cultural history. It contributes to thinking about daguerreotypes and their cases, but it does so in order to interrogate thinking in cases and objecthood as a legal category. I argue that daguerreotypes have to be understood as image-thing amalgams, paying particular attention to the construction and distinguishing marks on the cases and frames that enclose these images. These cases, particularly those of the patent holder Richard Beard, are situated within legal debates on property and cannot be understood without attention to social relations of capital and class.
With three short embedded films.
http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-18/making-a-case#figure33
With three short embedded films.
http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-18/making-a-case#figure33
Research Interests: Marxism, Case Study Research, Property, Case Studies, Materialism, and 14 moreCapitalism, Nineteenth Century British History and Culture, Cultural Materialism, Michel Foucault, Intellectual Property Law, History of Art, Social History of Art, Early Photography, Patent Law, Cultural Biography of Things, History and Theory of Photography, André Jolles, Daguerreotype, and Biography of things
Written by Gail Day and Steve Edwards, the essay proposes Bakhtin's 'chrontope' as the aesthetic form for uneven and combined development (UCD) and UCD as the necessary concept for understanding contemporary capitalism on a global scale.... more
Written by Gail Day and Steve Edwards, the essay proposes Bakhtin's 'chrontope' as the aesthetic form for uneven and combined development (UCD) and UCD as the necessary concept for understanding contemporary capitalism on a global scale. Exploring recent Marxist ideas of time, modes of production and colonialism, the essay suggests Sekula is a key figure for 'form giving' in relation to these debates.
Research Interests:
This essay, published in a Festschrift for Alex Potts, investigates the role of documentary photography in the radical aesthetics of the 1970s. I argue that the Brecht-Benjamin line should not be seen simply as a matter of... more
This essay, published in a Festschrift for Alex Potts, investigates the role of documentary photography in the radical aesthetics of the 1970s. I argue that the Brecht-Benjamin line should not be seen simply as a matter of representation, but must include the transformation of production relations. The range of practices current in Britain at the time included both perspectives, but a range of organisations, groups and individuals paid serious attention to creating, what Alan Sears calls an 'infrastructure of dissent'. The essay includes research conducted in the Jo Spence Archive at Birkbeck.
Incidentally the phrase 'dirty realism' as adapted from Enzensberger's 'dirty media'.
Incidentally the phrase 'dirty realism' as adapted from Enzensberger's 'dirty media'.
Research Interests:
An account of Allan Sekula's work 'Fish Story' (1995). Published in Kunst Und Politik: Jarhbuch Der Guernica-Gesellschaft, 18, 2016, edited by Andrew Hemingway and Norbert Schnieder, pp.147-57. In 1996 I did the first public presentation... more
An account of Allan Sekula's work 'Fish Story' (1995).
Published in Kunst Und Politik: Jarhbuch Der Guernica-Gesellschaft, 18, 2016, edited by Andrew Hemingway and Norbert Schnieder, pp.147-57.
In 1996 I did the first public presentation with Allan of Fish Story in the UK and have returned to the work on various occasions. This is a synthetic overview.
Published in Kunst Und Politik: Jarhbuch Der Guernica-Gesellschaft, 18, 2016, edited by Andrew Hemingway and Norbert Schnieder, pp.147-57.
In 1996 I did the first public presentation with Allan of Fish Story in the UK and have returned to the work on various occasions. This is a synthetic overview.
Research Interests:
Published in a Festschrift for Adrian Rifkin, this essay reconstructs a series of destroyed murals depicting the rise of photography in the Regent Street studio of Antione Claudet at the middle of the nineteenth century. The paintings... more
Published in a Festschrift for Adrian Rifkin, this essay reconstructs a series of destroyed murals depicting the rise of photography in the Regent Street studio of Antione Claudet at the middle of the nineteenth century. The paintings were destroyed in a fire and no visual records remain. The essay reads a number of reports from the contemporary press and argues that the murals negotiate the trauma of 1848 from the prespective of a French liberal in London.
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The Fire Last Time: Documentary and Politics in 1970s Britain By Steve Edwards 07.09.–31.10.2017 In a time of crisis and increasing anti-capitalism, Steve Edwards considers the meeting of the political Left with photography in Britain in... more
The Fire Last Time: Documentary and Politics in 1970s Britain
By Steve Edwards
07.09.–31.10.2017
In a time of crisis and increasing anti-capitalism, Steve Edwards considers the meeting of the political Left with photography in Britain in the 1970s. Edwards insists the fortunes of documentary and the visibility of social class are entwined. Beginning from a discussion of the critical fortunes of documentary over the last 30 years, he looks at the interest in Brecht and the fall out from the so called neo-Brechtian moment. In the process, he re-evaluates theories and practices of documentary, engaging with a range of documentary work; conceptions of skill and collective production and women and labour.
By Steve Edwards
07.09.–31.10.2017
In a time of crisis and increasing anti-capitalism, Steve Edwards considers the meeting of the political Left with photography in Britain in the 1970s. Edwards insists the fortunes of documentary and the visibility of social class are entwined. Beginning from a discussion of the critical fortunes of documentary over the last 30 years, he looks at the interest in Brecht and the fall out from the so called neo-Brechtian moment. In the process, he re-evaluates theories and practices of documentary, engaging with a range of documentary work; conceptions of skill and collective production and women and labour.
Research Interests:
An account of early photographic authorship, which draws on the legal prosecutions conducted by the British patentee for the Daguerreotype patent, Richard Beard. The essay engages debates on intellectual property rights and argues that,... more
An account of early photographic authorship, which draws on the legal prosecutions conducted by the British patentee for the Daguerreotype patent, Richard Beard. The essay engages debates on intellectual property rights and argues that, while most discussions of art and visual culture have focussed on French examples, British capitalism created a specific framework for authorship, unlike those found under systems based on Roman law.
The essay is a materialist response to performativity theory and retort to New Historicist accounts of Intellectual Property. It is a first draft for a book in process.
Published in OXFORD ART JOURNAL, 36.3 2013, 369–394
The essay is a materialist response to performativity theory and retort to New Historicist accounts of Intellectual Property. It is a first draft for a book in process.
Published in OXFORD ART JOURNAL, 36.3 2013, 369–394
Research Interests: History of Science and Technology, Art History, Intellectual Property, History of Capitalism, Nineteenth-century Art, and 7 moreNineteenth Century British History and Culture, Intellectual History of Capitalism, Intellectual and cultural history, Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Early Photography, History and Theory of Photography, and Daguerreotype
This essay examines the place of skill in WHF Talbot's accounts of the 'invention' of photography. Famously, Talbot couldn't draw, even with the aid of mechanical drawing devices. So he began to imagine a process that would dispense with... more
This essay examines the place of skill in WHF Talbot's accounts of the 'invention' of photography. Famously, Talbot couldn't draw, even with the aid of mechanical drawing devices. So he began to imagine a process that would dispense with the artist's skill and create automatic images. Talbot's first experiments with photography in 1835 coincide with the publication of Andrew Ure's Philosophy of Manufactures, which also posits a form of production without skilled workers. Reading Ure and Talbot together, I draw attention to this fantasy of automatic production, which I call 'autogenesis', suggesting it is a powerful and reactionary utopia embedded in capitalism. In positing production without workers, I argue middle-class intellectuals created a place for themselves, seemingly beyond interests.
The essay is an early drat for the first chapter of my book: The Making of English Photography, Allegories (2006).
This essay was published in History of Photography, Vol.26, No.2, 2002, pp.113-18
The essay is an early drat for the first chapter of my book: The Making of English Photography, Allegories (2006).
This essay was published in History of Photography, Vol.26, No.2, 2002, pp.113-18
Research Interests:
This essay examines Andrew Ure's The Philosophy of Manufactures, published in 1835. Ure's book occupies an important place in debates on the labour process as well as historical accounts of industrialization and the regulation of factory... more
This essay examines Andrew Ure's The Philosophy of Manufactures, published in 1835. Ure's book occupies an important place in debates on the labour process as well as
historical accounts of industrialization and the regulation of factory labour. Through a detailed reading of the text's figurative language it is argued that Ure constructs a capitalist
Utopia of the production process without labour. Among elites it is a fantasy still prominent today.
Central to Ure's book is a social fantasy of autogenesis—machines that produce without workers. In contrast to Taylorist mode that promote a fusion of worker and apparatus, I argue that Ure effects a radical separation in
which the worker is imagined as the other to the machine. Ure's text is compared to popular Utopian thought and located in contemporary medicalizations of the factory. This essay proposes that The Philosophy of Manufactures, and the factory guide books' of the 1830s more generally, worked to produce a space for technical experts such as Ure in the emerging middle-class state.
Published in Journal of Design History Vol. 14 No. 1, 2001
historical accounts of industrialization and the regulation of factory labour. Through a detailed reading of the text's figurative language it is argued that Ure constructs a capitalist
Utopia of the production process without labour. Among elites it is a fantasy still prominent today.
Central to Ure's book is a social fantasy of autogenesis—machines that produce without workers. In contrast to Taylorist mode that promote a fusion of worker and apparatus, I argue that Ure effects a radical separation in
which the worker is imagined as the other to the machine. Ure's text is compared to popular Utopian thought and located in contemporary medicalizations of the factory. This essay proposes that The Philosophy of Manufactures, and the factory guide books' of the 1830s more generally, worked to produce a space for technical experts such as Ure in the emerging middle-class state.
Published in Journal of Design History Vol. 14 No. 1, 2001
Research Interests:
Taking two pieces of ordinary writing on photography from the 1860s, this short essay explores utopian themes of mental and manual labour in middle-class thinking. What would capitalism become if its forms of knowledge and practice could... more
Taking two pieces of ordinary writing on photography from the 1860s, this short essay explores utopian themes of mental and manual labour in middle-class thinking. What would capitalism become if its forms of knowledge and practice could be aligned? Photography appears as a prospect without horizon, which joins the dirempt points of a social order. Alas, the divisions couldn't be transcended.
Published in History of Photography, Vol.20, No.4, 1996, pp.342-344
Published in History of Photography, Vol.20, No.4, 1996, pp.342-344
Research Interests:
A text and an image provide the material for this symptomatic reading of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The text is philosopher William Whewell's lecture on the International exhibition; the image is the Punch cartoon called 'The Pound and... more
A text and an image provide the material for this symptomatic reading of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The text is philosopher William Whewell's lecture on the International exhibition; the image is the Punch cartoon called 'The Pound and the Shilling'. Ostensibly sharing little, these representations provide a conjuncture that illuminates the production of a professional middle-class vision, the gaze of the expert.
Published in Louise Purbrick ed., The Great Exhibition of 1851: New Interdisciplinary Essays, Manchester University Press, 2001, pp.26-52
Published in Louise Purbrick ed., The Great Exhibition of 1851: New Interdisciplinary Essays, Manchester University Press, 2001, pp.26-52
Research Interests:
A draft for chapter 3 of my The Making of English Photography, Allegories (2006). This essay looks at the classification of photography in the International exhibition of 1862. Photography as an allegory of the motley proletariat... more
A draft for chapter 3 of my The Making of English Photography, Allegories (2006). This essay looks at the classification of photography in the International exhibition of 1862. Photography as an allegory of the motley proletariat threatened to ruin bourgeois knowledge. In the process, I off an account of the taxonomy at work in the British International Exhibitions.
Published in Art Journal, Vol.55, No.2, 1996
Published in Art Journal, Vol.55, No.2, 1996
Research Interests:
This paper looks at two instances when the figure of the 'bootblack' or shoe cleaner was presented as an image of the photographer: Street Life in London and WJ Stillman's polemics against photographic art published in Photographic News... more
This paper looks at two instances when the figure of the 'bootblack' or shoe cleaner was presented as an image of the photographer: Street Life in London and WJ Stillman's polemics against photographic art published in Photographic News during the 1870s.
Drawing on Ranciere's early work on workers' archives, I challenge the standard accounts of Street Life of London and argue that a figuration of photography can be found in the unlikely figure of the bootblack.
Published in warren Carter, Barnaby Haran and Fredric J Schwartz eds, Renew Marxist Art History, Art/Books, 2013.
An earlier version appeared in Spanish
Drawing on Ranciere's early work on workers' archives, I challenge the standard accounts of Street Life of London and argue that a figuration of photography can be found in the unlikely figure of the bootblack.
Published in warren Carter, Barnaby Haran and Fredric J Schwartz eds, Renew Marxist Art History, Art/Books, 2013.
An earlier version appeared in Spanish
Research Interests:
Beginning with a consideration of the abandonment of the social in recent photography, - a collective without content, or individual amidst the mass - this essay examines the representation of the anti-capitalist crowd by three... more
Beginning with a consideration of the abandonment of the social in recent photography, - a collective without content, or individual amidst the mass - this essay examines the representation of the anti-capitalist crowd by three photographers: Joel Sternfeld, Allan Sekula and Chris Marker. Drawing on work in social history (EP Thompson, Christopher Hill, Paul Gilroy, Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker) on the multitude and the commons the paper examines the demonisation of the crowd, by gentleman as many-headed monster from above as a monster. In contrast it also looks at alternative ideas of the multitude, or motley crew, figured from below. The essay is a contribution to debates on capitalism and the so-called primitive accumulation, from a cultural-materialist perspective.
Published in: Third Text, Vol. 23, Issue 4, July, 2009, 447–464
Published in: Third Text, Vol. 23, Issue 4, July, 2009, 447–464
Research Interests:
An account of photography between Adorno's aesthetics and figural reading. Beginning from some recent accounts of the work of Gerhard Richter and other post-conceptual art practices, this essay dips back into the nineteenth-century... more
An account of photography between Adorno's aesthetics and figural reading. Beginning from some recent accounts of the work of Gerhard Richter and other post-conceptual art practices, this essay dips back into the nineteenth-century controversy about colouring photographs, arguing the paradoxes of photography move between the ontology of the image and the long-history of social figuration. Perhaps the 'index' should be seen as a site of social struggle?
Published in David Green ed., Where is the Photograph?, Photoworks, 2003
It was also translated into Spanish
Published in David Green ed., Where is the Photograph?, Photoworks, 2003
It was also translated into Spanish
Research Interests:
Described at the time as 'a radical re-appraisal of reformist documentary', my first published piece considers British documentary of the 30s. In particular at looks at how the industrial North was mobilised in the crisis and the role of... more
Described at the time as 'a radical re-appraisal of reformist documentary', my first published piece considers British documentary of the 30s. In particular at looks at how the industrial North was mobilised in the crisis and the role of intellectuals negotiating a central role for themselves in the social polity as the men of the future.
It is marked by the rhetorical anti-realism of the time, but it contains some useful ideas and still little considered material.
Published in Ten.8, no.15, 1984
It was republished in the special British issue of the journal Exposure, Vol.24, No.3, 1986 and was recently translated into Spanish and published in the catalogue to Jorge Ribalta's exhibition Not Yet, held at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid.
It is marked by the rhetorical anti-realism of the time, but it contains some useful ideas and still little considered material.
Published in Ten.8, no.15, 1984
It was republished in the special British issue of the journal Exposure, Vol.24, No.3, 1986 and was recently translated into Spanish and published in the catalogue to Jorge Ribalta's exhibition Not Yet, held at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid.
Research Interests:
At a time when the constructed image was mobilised against the truth content of the photograph, this essay employed the idea of reported speech, developed by the theorists of the Bakhtin School, to argue that photographs are always... more
At a time when the constructed image was mobilised against the truth content of the photograph, this essay employed the idea of reported speech, developed by the theorists of the Bakhtin School, to argue that photographs are always dialogic forms that bear traces of their subjects as well as their makers.
Drawing on nineteenth century debates about photographing criminals and children, it contests the then prevalent Foucaldian view of all-encompassing (monologic) power-knowledge.
Published in Oxford Art Journal (1990) 13 (1): 63-76
Drawing on nineteenth century debates about photographing criminals and children, it contests the then prevalent Foucaldian view of all-encompassing (monologic) power-knowledge.
Published in Oxford Art Journal (1990) 13 (1): 63-76
Research Interests:
An early critique of postmodernism in photography and photo-theory. Despite some crudities, it is notable for an early consideration of globalisation. Published in Ten.8, no.32, 1989 The essay has been translated into Portuguese and also... more
An early critique of postmodernism in photography and photo-theory. Despite some crudities, it is notable for an early consideration of globalisation.
Published in Ten.8, no.32, 1989
The essay has been translated into Portuguese and also republish in various anthologies.
Published in Ten.8, no.32, 1989
The essay has been translated into Portuguese and also republish in various anthologies.
Research Interests:
An account of Jeff Wall's picture A Donkey in Blackpool (1999) and its relation to Stubbs's painting Whistlejacket. This essay developed from a paper presented at Tate modern and was published in a special issue of the Oxford Art Journal... more
An account of Jeff Wall's picture A Donkey in Blackpool (1999) and its relation to Stubbs's painting Whistlejacket.
This essay developed from a paper presented at Tate modern and was published in a special issue of the Oxford Art Journal dedicated to the work of Wall (OXFORD ART JOURNAL 30.1 2007 39–54). Across time, Wall's image offers an allegory of capitalism and class.
This essay developed from a paper presented at Tate modern and was published in a special issue of the Oxford Art Journal dedicated to the work of Wall (OXFORD ART JOURNAL 30.1 2007 39–54). Across time, Wall's image offers an allegory of capitalism and class.
Research Interests:
An interview conducted with Martha Rosler in London in 1989. It was published in Ten.8 no. 35, Winter 1989/1990
Research Interests:
An assessment of writings by Allan Sekula published in Ten.8, no.26, 1987
It appeared with a piece by the late David Green on victor Burgin
It appeared with a piece by the late David Green on victor Burgin
Research Interests:
Obituary, or celebration, of the life of Allan Sekula - activist, photographer, film maker and historian of capitalism's image regimes.
It was published in Radical Philosophy, No.182. There is a French translation.
It was published in Radical Philosophy, No.182. There is a French translation.
Research Interests:
This paper addresses the current debate on politics and art biennials. Taking as the point of departure the 11th Istanbul Biennial : 'What Keeps Mankind Alive', it looks at the increased politicisation of art in a context where critics... more
This paper addresses the current debate on politics and art biennials. Taking as the point of departure the 11th Istanbul Biennial : 'What Keeps Mankind Alive', it looks at the increased politicisation of art in a context where critics and activists find the commercialisation of art to be overarching.
In the process, the essay asks what it means to speak of the artwork as a commodity and suggests that many of the available versions of this theory are inadequate.
The essay was published in: Historical Materialism 18 (2010, pp.) 135–171
In the process, the essay asks what it means to speak of the artwork as a commodity and suggests that many of the available versions of this theory are inadequate.
The essay was published in: Historical Materialism 18 (2010, pp.) 135–171
Based on an account of the Brighton Photo-Biennial Memory of Fire: The War of Images and Images of War, curated by Julian Stallabrass in late 2008, this essay considers the photographic coverage of the recent imperialist interventions in... more
Based on an account of the Brighton Photo-Biennial Memory of Fire: The War of Images and Images of War, curated by Julian Stallabrass in late 2008, this essay considers the photographic coverage of the recent imperialist interventions in the Middle East. Taking its cue from Stallabrass's event, it reflects on the decline of documentary and photojournalism since the Vietnam War and the current attenuated politics of the media. It argues that the problem of the sublime extends beyond the current genre of 'aftermath'-photography and asks what might constitute a more cognitively adequate politics of the image.
Published in Historical Materialism, Volume 17, Issue 2, pp. 84 – 102
Published in Historical Materialism, Volume 17, Issue 2, pp. 84 – 102
Catalogue for Whitworth Art Gallery exhibtion William Morris ‘Ministering to the Swinish Luxuary of the Rich’ curated by David Mabb. Includes The Colonisation of Utopia by Steve Edwards; William Morris: 'Ministering to the Swinish Luxuary... more
Catalogue for Whitworth Art Gallery exhibtion William Morris ‘Ministering to the Swinish Luxuary of the Rich’ curated by David Mabb. Includes The Colonisation of Utopia by Steve Edwards; William Morris: 'Ministering to the Swinish Luxuary of the Rich' by David Mabb and Four Walls: Morris and Ornament by Caroline Arscott.
Reviewed by Dave Beech https://www.academia.edu/11050597/As_It_Might_Be
Reviewed by Dave Beech https://www.academia.edu/11050597/As_It_Might_Be
Research Interests: Aesthetics, Art History, Design, Art, Art Theory, and 45 moreDesign History, Marxism, Installation Art, Contemporary Art, Interior Design, Design History and Theory, Postmodernism, Curating, History of Art, Literature and Visual Arts, Modernism (Art History), Aesthetics and Politics, Modernism, History of Design, Curatorial Studies and Practice, Art Theory and Politics, Curatorial Practice (Art), Intersections in Visual Art and Design, Visual Arts, Curation (Art), Fine Arts, Art and Politics, Appropriation, Curatorial Practice, Exhibitions, Fine Art, Curation, William Morris, Art and Design, History of Arts, Art & Design, History of art and design, Museum Curation, William Morris and his influence, Art History, Exhibition History, Museum and Curating Studies, Exhibition Catalogue, Theories of Socialism, Curating contemporary art, Art and Art History, Instalation Art, Contemporary Art, Artists Curating, Curating As Critical Practice, Fine Art Practice, Museums and Curating, and Curating and Contemporary Art
Research Interests: Art History, Art, Contemporary Art, Painting, History of Art, and 14 moreIntersections in Visual Art and Design, Visual Arts, Fine Arts, Visual Art, Appropriation, Fine Art, William Morris, Art and Design, Kasimir Malevich, Fine Art Painting, William Morris and his influence, Exhibition Catalogue, Appropriation Art, and Art and Art History
Research Interests:
Review of Molly Nesbit: Their Common Sense (Black Dog: London, 2000), In this extraordinary study, Nesbit sets Braque, Picasso and Duchamp in the field of technical knowledge and commercial culture rooted in Third Republic France. A new... more
Review of Molly Nesbit: Their Common Sense (Black Dog: London, 2000),
In this extraordinary study, Nesbit sets Braque, Picasso and Duchamp in the field of technical knowledge and commercial culture rooted in Third Republic France. A new view of capitalist culture emerges that centres on 'object lessons'. In the process, familiar accounts of modernity are reworked and cherished assumptions of art history rethought.
Published in The Oxford Art Journal, Vol.25, No.1, 2002
In this extraordinary study, Nesbit sets Braque, Picasso and Duchamp in the field of technical knowledge and commercial culture rooted in Third Republic France. A new view of capitalist culture emerges that centres on 'object lessons'. In the process, familiar accounts of modernity are reworked and cherished assumptions of art history rethought.
Published in The Oxford Art Journal, Vol.25, No.1, 2002
Research Interests:
Review of Atget's Seven Albums, by Molly Nesbit (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1992). One of the outstanding studies of photography and one of the best works of the social history of art. In her outstanding study Nesbit... more
Review of Atget's Seven Albums, by Molly Nesbit (Yale University
Press, New Haven and London, 1992).
One of the outstanding studies of photography and one of the best works of the social history of art.
In her outstanding study Nesbit offers an original account of the document as a cultural form; explores authorship and the uses of history and sets forth Atget the political radical.
Published in the Oxford Art Journal Vol.16, No.2, 1993
Press, New Haven and London, 1992).
One of the outstanding studies of photography and one of the best works of the social history of art.
In her outstanding study Nesbit offers an original account of the document as a cultural form; explores authorship and the uses of history and sets forth Atget the political radical.
Published in the Oxford Art Journal Vol.16, No.2, 1993
Research Interests:
A review of Elizabeth Edwards, The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination. 1885–1918 (Duke University Press: Durham and London, 2012), A major study of the Photographic Record and Survey Movement by one of... more
A review of Elizabeth Edwards, The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination. 1885–1918 (Duke University Press: Durham and London, 2012),
A major study of the Photographic Record and Survey Movement by one of the most significant historians of photography.
published in OXFORD ART JOURNAL 36.1 2013
A major study of the Photographic Record and Survey Movement by one of the most significant historians of photography.
published in OXFORD ART JOURNAL 36.1 2013
Research Interests:
Review of the monumental Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism ,Postmodernism, by Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh (Thames & Hudson, London, 2004). A vast study of the art of the twentieth century by... more
Review of the monumental Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism ,Postmodernism, by Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh (Thames & Hudson, London, 2004).
A vast study of the art of the twentieth century by the 4 key thinkers at October magazine allows for an assessment of their achievement. This is my attempt at a balance sheet.
published in Radical Philosophy, No.138, 2006
A vast study of the art of the twentieth century by the 4 key thinkers at October magazine allows for an assessment of their achievement. This is my attempt at a balance sheet.
published in Radical Philosophy, No.138, 2006
Research Interests:
An introduction to thinking about photography, suitable for undergraduates, practitioners and informed general readers. Origins; document and picture; art and evidence. English edition: Oxford University Press, 2006. Subsequently... more
An introduction to thinking about photography, suitable for undergraduates, practitioners and informed general readers. Origins; document and picture; art and evidence.
English edition: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Subsequently translates into: Swedish, Greek, Farsi and Arabic. Polish edition in process.
English edition: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Subsequently translates into: Swedish, Greek, Farsi and Arabic. Polish edition in process.
Research Interests:
Co-written with two art historians, this essay assesses contemporary debate about art, politics and commodity culture. Starting from the 2009 Istanbul Biennial, with its Brechtian curatorial theme, this we consider's the Left's varying... more
Co-written with two art historians, this essay assesses contemporary debate about art, politics and commodity culture. Starting from the 2009 Istanbul Biennial, with its Brechtian curatorial theme, this we consider's the Left's varying responses to art's co-called 'political turn'. Our essay, includes a substantial review of this important event and a substantive engagement with contemporary thinking about art.
The essay ranges a consideration of the local and regional context of the Biennial's function as part of Turkey's bid to join the EU, through to a longer term theoretical perspective on the critical debates over 'art and life', artistic autonomy and heteronomy, and the revival of avant-gardism.
The authors propose that the standard accounts of the intimate connection between the commodity and art are theoretically flawed and have become conservative and politically counterproductive. We suggest that Marxist analysis needs to develop a more complexly-articulated philosophical reflection on the relation between economy, politics and art - and between political and aesthetic praxes - if it is to advance its longstanding contributions to considerations of 'aesthetics and politics'. This will necessarily entail, we suggest, a serious engagement with the critique of political economy.
This essay is an original contribution to the debate on contemporary art, drawing on an intimate knowledge of recent art and art criticism, it involves a reworking of the standard accounts drawing on an understanding of Marxist theory, which is often invoked in these debates, but often misunderstood.
The essay ranges a consideration of the local and regional context of the Biennial's function as part of Turkey's bid to join the EU, through to a longer term theoretical perspective on the critical debates over 'art and life', artistic autonomy and heteronomy, and the revival of avant-gardism.
The authors propose that the standard accounts of the intimate connection between the commodity and art are theoretically flawed and have become conservative and politically counterproductive. We suggest that Marxist analysis needs to develop a more complexly-articulated philosophical reflection on the relation between economy, politics and art - and between political and aesthetic praxes - if it is to advance its longstanding contributions to considerations of 'aesthetics and politics'. This will necessarily entail, we suggest, a serious engagement with the critique of political economy.
This essay is an original contribution to the debate on contemporary art, drawing on an intimate knowledge of recent art and art criticism, it involves a reworking of the standard accounts drawing on an understanding of Marxist theory, which is often invoked in these debates, but often misunderstood.
Research Interests: Aesthetics, Art History, Art, Art Theory, Contemporary Art, and 38 morePolitics, Curating, Critical Art, History of Art, Aesthetics and Politics, Art Criticism, Bertolt Brecht, Art Theory and Politics, Theory and Practice of Visual Arts, Visual Arts, Art history and critical theory, Fine Arts, Biennales, Art and Politics, Review, Art and Society, Art Theory, Art History & Criticism,Sociology of, Exhibitions, Contemporary Art Theory, Theory and History of Art, Bertold Brecht, Istanbul, Art Theory and Criticism, Brecht, Biennials, History of Exhibitions, Art History, Exhibition History, Museum and Curating Studies, Theory of Art, Critical Art Practices, Curating contemporary art, Art and Art History, Curating As Critical Practice, Brechtian, Art History and Criticism, Arts Theory and Practice, Relationship Between Art Theory and Practice, Istanbul Biennial, Art History/Biennale History, and CONTEMPORARY ART ET BERTOLD BRECHT
Catalogue for The Decorating Business, Oakville Galleries, Ontario. With a foreword by Francine Perinet and essays by David Mabb, Marnie Fleming and Steve Edwards and 20 Questions a project by Matthew Higgs. Designed by Lewis Nicholson.... more
Catalogue for The Decorating Business, Oakville Galleries, Ontario. With a foreword by Francine Perinet and essays by David Mabb, Marnie Fleming and Steve Edwards and 20 Questions a project by Matthew Higgs. Designed by Lewis Nicholson.
Link to video 'A Closer Look at the Life and Work of William Morris' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIR0PbcOHkU
Link to video 'A Closer Look at the Life and Work of William Morris' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIR0PbcOHkU
Research Interests: Aesthetics, Art History, Design, Art, Art Theory, and 40 moreInstallation Art, Contemporary Art, Modern Art, Painting, Interior Design, Communism, Wallpaper (Design multi-disciplinary practice), Interior Design (Architecture), History of Art, Modernism (Art History), Decorative Arts, Aesthetics and Politics, Modernism, Art Theory and Politics, Theory and Practice of Visual Arts, Artists' Writings, Intersections in Visual Art and Design, Visual Arts, History Painting, Fine Arts, Visual Art, Post-modernism, Art and Politics, Appropriation, Exhibitions, Fine Art, William Morris, Art and Design, Kasimir Malevich, Art & Design, History of art and design, William Morris and his influence, Wallpapers, Exhibition Catalogue, Arts, Politics and Culture, Appropriation Art, Art and Art History, Especially William Morris, Wallpaper, and Art and Design History and Theory
A long Open University teaching text in which I follow the trajectory of photography as it emerged in conceptual art. The essay looks at key works by Graham, Smithson and Ruscha; the politicisation of the document form in Haacke, Rosler,... more
A long Open University teaching text in which I follow the trajectory of photography as it emerged in conceptual art. The essay looks at key works by Graham, Smithson and Ruscha; the politicisation of the document form in Haacke, Rosler, Sekula, and Burgin; the turn to staged images in Sherman and Burgin (again); and concludes with an in depth comparison between the work of Jeff Wall and Allan Sekula,
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An Open University teaching text that examines the decline of humanist photography and the emergence of a new paradigm associated with John Szarkowski at MoMA. Following an insight from Martha Rosler I make distinctions between the... more
An Open University teaching text that examines the decline of humanist photography and the emergence of a new paradigm associated with John Szarkowski at MoMA. Following an insight from Martha Rosler I make distinctions between the photographers in Szarkowski's canon.
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An Open University teaching chapter co-written with Gail Day. The text examines the Bienalle phenomena and considers the re-emergence of anti-capitalism in contemporary art.
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An Open University Teaching text surveying modernist practices and debates in photography and montage between the wars
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An Open University Teaching text, which looks at both the representations of modern life and the emergence of modern image culture. The essay also considers the romantic anti-capitalism of Pugin, Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites.
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An Open University teaching text for a pioneering course on art and globalisation.
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Individual artists have been the traditional focus of art history, but how do we evaluate the figure of the artist? This free course, Artists and authorship: the case of Raphael, takes the life of Raphael as a case study. You will examine... more
Individual artists have been the traditional focus of art history, but how do we evaluate the figure of the artist? This free course, Artists and authorship: the case of Raphael, takes the life of Raphael as a case study. You will examine sixteenth-century sources to explore the creation of artistic authorship in the early modern era. The course explores past and current approaches to the artist in terms of authorship, identity and subjectivity. You will consider issues such as the relationship between the artist's life and work, the enduring notion of 'genius' and the artist as a source of meaning.
