Utopian Globalists (eBook)

Jonathan Harris is Professor in Global Art and Design Studies at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK. His work has consistently explored questions of state power, culture, art, ideology and social order, particularly in Europe and America over the past century. His The New Art History: A Critical Introduction (2001) remains a classic text, and he has published 17 books as editor, author and co-author, including Globalization and Contemporary Art (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction: The World in a Work of Art 1

Global Order, Social Order, Visual Order 2

'Globalization' and 'Globalism' in Th
eory and Practice 10

Capitalism and Communism as (Failed) Utopian Totalities 16

Ideal and Real Collectivities 23

1 Spectacle, Social Transformation and Utopian Globalist Art
34

Spectacular Cold War Communisms and Capitalisms 35

Alienation/Separation and State Power 44

System, Totality, Representation and the 'Utopian
Imaginary' 51

The 'Conquest of Space', Spectacular Art and
Globalist Vision 57

2 The Line of Liberation: Tatlin's Tower and the
Communist Construction of Global Revolution 76

Revolutionary Rupture, Structure and Sense 77

Space and Symbolism 85

Beyond Order 95

Collectivity and Necessity 103

3 Picasso for the Proletariat: 'The Most Famous
Communist in the World '118

Commitment to the Cause, Right or Wrong 119

Picasso as Screen 129

Image, Persona, Mediations 139

Picasso ' s Use and Exchange Value 147

4 Some Kind of Druid Dude: Joseph Beuys's Liturgies of
Freedom 165

Tatlin for the Television Generation 166

The Beuysian Spectacular Persona 171

The Spirit of the Earth 179

Process, Performance, Metabolic Transformation 185

Political Actions 191

5 'Bed-in' as Gesamtkunstwerk: A Typical Morning
in the Quest for World Peace 211

Sugar, Sugar 212

A Sequestered Zone of Peace 217

Just My Imagination 225

A Man from Liverpool and a Woman from Tokyo 229

6 Mother Nature on the Run: Austerity Globalist Depletions in
the 1970s 246

Transmission, Replacement, Negation, Deletion 247

West/East-North/South 253

Banality as Tactic 260

Austerity Globalism's Body-Politic 265

'Development' Exposed 272

7 Nomadic Globalism: Scenographica in Christo and
Jeanne-Claude's Wrapped Reichstag 287

The Negation Negated 288

Art, Business, Diplomacy 292

The Materials of Spectacle 296

Form as Sedimented Content 299

Seductive Acts of Occlusion 306

Conclusion: From the Spiral to the Turbine: A Global Warning
316

Large Rooms Full of Wonderful Curiosities 317

The Void of Possibilities 320

Disappeared 323

Index 333

"Though theoretically sophisticated, this volume is
accessible and engaging. Summing Up: Recommended.
Upper-level undergraduates through
professionals/practitioners." (Choice, 1
September 2013)

"Crossing continents, historical periods and cultural genres,
Jonathan Harris skillfully traces the evolution of utopian ideals
from early modernism to the spectacularised and biennialised (or
banalised as some would say) contemporary art world of
today."

- Michael Asbury, University of the Arts, London