MTU Library Catalogue

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Those passions : on art and politics / T. J. Clark.

By: Clark, T. J. (Timothy J.) [author.].
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London : Thames & Hudson, 2025Copyright date: ©2025Description: 383 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 26 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780500025260 (hardback).Subject(s): Internationale situationniste | Art and society | Art and revolutionsDDC classification: 701.03
Contents:
Introduction -- Part 1: Precursors - 1. Bosch's anthropology -- 2. Rembrandt's face -- 3. Velazquez's slave language -- Part 2: Moderns - 4. Sex and politics according to David -- 5. Sex and politics according to Delacroix -- 6. The Paris Arcades, or should Benjamin have read Marx? -- 7. Ensor's anarchism -- 8. Madame Mattise's hat -- 9. Beauty lacks strength: Hegel on the art of his century -- 10. Picasso and the English -- 11. L.S. Lowry, or whatever happened to the painter of modern life? -- 12. Pollock's smallness -- 13. Gerhard Richter's grey on grey -- Part 3: Modernities - 14. Modernity and terror with 'Retort', Joseph Matthews, Michael Watts, Iain Boal -- 15. From print capitalism to screen capitalism -- 16. The end of the image-world -- 17. For a left with no future -- 18. Art and the 1917 revolution -- 19. Why art can't kill the Situationist International with Donald Nicholson-Smith -- 20. The hand that mocked -- 21. A preface to Pasolini -- 22. 'And everywhere we see them perishing': Picasso and the twentieth century.
Summary: "Is art obliged to engage with politics? If so, how? By taking sides in political struggle; by singing the song of the barricade, the new nation, the bombed city? Or by giving form to the deeper patterns of experience – the raw materials of ‘society’ – from which any politics is made? Using case studies stretching across the centuries, from Hieronymus Bosch to Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution, from Walter Benjamin to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Those Passions aims to show how modern art has responded to the chaos and danger of modern life. In the book’s three sections – ‘Precursors’, ‘Moderns’ and ‘Modernities’ – internationally renowned art historian T. J. Clark unpicks the nature of capitalist society and its visual culture. He tries to understand the politics of appearance which is now our natural home – the twists and turns of consumerism, the arrival of the 24-hour image-world, the changing modes of symbolic production and the ongoing saturation of life by pictures and ‘data’ – and take stock of our guilty love affair with the imagery of violence, our attitude to the dream-world of advertising, the power and pathos of screen time. Written over the course of twenty-five years, these radical, provocative essays rethink issues central to art-making and political life today" - publisher's description.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Those Passions unpicks the nature of capitalist societies since the fifteenth century and the art produced within them. It evaluates the central politics of appearance--the building of "consumerism," the arrival of the 24-hour image-led world, the continuously changing methods of symbolic production, and the ongoing saturation of life by pictures and "data." It reveals our guilty love affair with the imagery of violence, the true nature of the "advertising" dream world, and the power and pathos of screen time.

Written across four decades, these essays focus on a line of painting and sculpture that was thought from the start to be responsive to the new condition. One key feature of the emerging "modern" was the liberation of art and politics from their previous established positions. Politics increasingly became a separate form of life, no longer so firmly allied to Church and State. Art floated free, at least partially, from the sacred age-old deference to the powerful. What art and politics would turn out to be became a question in itself; for some, the question on which art's future depended. With case studies drawn from across the centuries, from Hieronymus Bosch to Jacques-Louis David, Eugène Delacroix to Gerhard Richter, T. J. Clark asks what answers--or evasions--modernism was capable of. Radical and provocative, Those Passions engages with issues that continue to confront us today.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Part 1: Precursors - 1. Bosch's anthropology -- 2. Rembrandt's face -- 3. Velazquez's slave language -- Part 2: Moderns - 4. Sex and politics according to David -- 5. Sex and politics according to Delacroix -- 6. The Paris Arcades, or should Benjamin have read Marx? -- 7. Ensor's anarchism -- 8. Madame Mattise's hat -- 9. Beauty lacks strength: Hegel on the art of his century -- 10. Picasso and the English -- 11. L.S. Lowry, or whatever happened to the painter of modern life? -- 12. Pollock's smallness -- 13. Gerhard Richter's grey on grey -- Part 3: Modernities - 14. Modernity and terror with 'Retort', Joseph Matthews, Michael Watts, Iain Boal -- 15. From print capitalism to screen capitalism -- 16. The end of the image-world -- 17. For a left with no future -- 18. Art and the 1917 revolution -- 19. Why art can't kill the Situationist International with Donald Nicholson-Smith -- 20. The hand that mocked -- 21. A preface to Pasolini -- 22. 'And everywhere we see them perishing': Picasso and the twentieth century.

"Is art obliged to engage with politics? If so, how? By taking sides in political struggle; by singing the song of the barricade, the new nation, the bombed city? Or by giving form to the deeper patterns of experience – the raw materials of ‘society’ – from which any politics is made? Using case studies stretching across the centuries, from Hieronymus Bosch to Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution, from Walter Benjamin to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Those Passions aims to show how modern art has responded to the chaos and danger of modern life. In the book’s three sections – ‘Precursors’, ‘Moderns’ and ‘Modernities’ – internationally renowned art historian T. J. Clark unpicks the nature of capitalist society and its visual culture. He tries to understand the politics of appearance which is now our natural home – the twists and turns of consumerism, the arrival of the 24-hour image-world, the changing modes of symbolic production and the ongoing saturation of life by pictures and ‘data’ – and take stock of our guilty love affair with the imagery of violence, our attitude to the dream-world of advertising, the power and pathos of screen time. Written over the course of twenty-five years, these radical, provocative essays rethink issues central to art-making and political life today" - publisher's description.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Introduction (8)
  • I Precursors
  • 1 Bosch's Anthropology (22)
  • 2 Rembrandt's Faces (40)
  • 3 Velazquez's Slave Language (50)
  • II Moderns
  • 4 Sex and Politics According to David (74)
  • 5 Sex and Politics According to Delacroix (90)
  • 6 The Paris Arcades, or Should Benjamin Have Read Marx? (108)
  • 7 Ensor's Anarchism (126)
  • 8 Madame Matisse's Hat (134)
  • 9 Beauty Lacks Strength: Hegel on the Art of his Century (148)
  • 10 Picasso and the English (164)
  • 11 L. S. Lowry, or Whatever Happened to the Painter of Modern Life? (176)
  • 12 Pollock's Smallness (202)
  • 13 Gerhard Richter's Grey on Grey (218)
  • III Modernities
  • 14 Modernity and Terror with 'Retort', Joseph Matthews, Michael Watts, Iain Boat (232)
  • 15 From Print Capitalism to Screen Capitalism (250)
  • 16 The End of the Image-World (260)
  • 17 For a Left with No Future (278)
  • 18 Art and the 1917 Revolution (296)
  • 19 Why Art Can't Kill the Situationist International with Donald Nicholson-Smith (310)
  • 20 The Hand That Mocked (326)
  • 21 A Preface to Pasolini (330)
  • 22 'And Everywhere We See Them Perishing': Picasso and the Twentieth Century (336)
  • Acknowledgments (358)
  • Notes (360)
  • List Of Illustrations (370)
  • Index (374)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

T. J. Clark is professor emeritus of the history of art at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of the seminal The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers and Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism . He writes art criticism regularly for the London Review of Books . He is also the author of Those Passions: On Art and Politics , T. J. Clark on Bruegel , and Heaven on Earth: Painting and the Life to Come .