Art in the Age of Populism

Julian Stallabrass is a writer, photographer and curator. His publications include Killing for Show: Photography, War, and the Media in Vietnam and Iraq (2020), Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction (2020) and High Art Lite: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art (2006).

"Art writer Stallabrass, renowned for slicing through superficial surfaces to dig out the real story, returns with a new book asking why the super-rich elites are obsessed with populist art. Authoritarian leaders and billionaires prefer pop art, but why, and how, does this influence culture, power and taste?" - The Bookseller: Art Spotlight"In this eye-opening study, Julian Stallabrass traces a web of connections between populism, oligarchy and the upper reaches of the market for contemporary art. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the pressures currently shaping the art world." - Marcus Verhagen, Senior Lecturer, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and author of Viewing Velocities: Time in Contemporary Art"Julian Stallabrass has the unblinking ability to get to the nub of what ails us today. Urgent and timely, this book is vital for unpicking the complex interrelations between contemporary art, its markets and the performance of populism across the political spectrum." - Zehra Jumabhoy, art historian and curator, and Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Bristol"This incisive and timely book offers a lucid genealogy of how populist politics and populist art have become mutually reinforcing trajectories within neoliberal culture, from the auction house to the ballot box. Across its chapters, Stallabrass deftly braids together close readings of artworks, sharp political-economic analysis, and a subtle reworking of canonical theories of populism to show how populist politicians, branded contemporary artists, and the cultural industries that mediate between them stage and sell “the people” and their supposed enemies. No one trying to understand contemporary art’s entanglement with the toxic nationalisms, authoritarian styles, and affective economies that structure our present can ignore Art in the Age of Populism." - Alexander Alberro, Virginia Bloedel Wright Professor of Art History, Barnard College and Columbia University, and author of Interstices: Negotiations at Contemporary Art’s Boundaries"In this deft analysis, Julian Stallabrass unpacks the meanings of a truly strange historical development: the convergence of elite and mass taste. What results is an incisive interpretation of not only populist art, but the entire contemporary artworld. A deeply satisfying read." - Sianne Ngai, George M. Pullman Professor of English, University of Chicago, and author of Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form