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Book Review: Working Aesthetics: Labour, Art and Capitalism
Danielle Child's book tackles the neoliberal penetration of artistic production from a Marxist perspective
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill
STEVE ANDREW recommends a Marxist analysis of the long chains of production that global corporations exploit
MARY CONWAY relishes the period detail but misses the drama in this unsatisfactory dramatisation of the subjugated life of George Eliot
IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a mainstream scholar to the ranks of left-wing critique of US foreign policy
PETER MASON is disappointed that the eponymous Count fails to put in an appearance
Working Aesthetics: Labour, Art and Capitalism
by Danielle Child
(Bloomsbury, £21.99)
UNUSUALLY for a young art historian, Danielle Child bases her discussion of the relationship between contemporary art, labour and capitalism on the “Marxian” ideology that art, as part of the superstructure, is defined by its economic base.
Focusing mostly on US and British art, where neoliberalism has been strongest, she argues that its managerialist, fragmented, individualised and precarious working models are mirrored by new artistic practices since the 1990s.
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