Description:
Reframing art history beyond the art object
In this lively polemic, Paul B. Jaskot confronts art history's ideological preoccupation with the art object. To unbind the discipline from this fixation, Jaskot proposes centering our art-historical inquiry on systems of power rather than on the art object. Modeling this shift, Jaskot asks: What might an art history of oppression, power, and barbarism look like? The study that follows is divided into three parts--empire, war and labor. Each draws from a constellation of examples, ranging from the architecture of the early modern era to that of Nazi Germany, from the trans-Atlantic slave trade to contemporary exhibition making.
Also featuring a photo essay by Steve Harp, this book presents a prescient case for how art history can make a meaningful contribution to understanding systems of power and why such a project is needed now more than ever.
The Tyranny of the Object is the third title for Power Polemics, a series that puts art hard up against political and personal viewpoints from some of the leading thinkers and writers in the field today.