Danielle Child – författare

A central tenet of capitalism is the production of commodities to create profit (money); as such, the logical starting place for this companion is the relationship of art to these foundational elements of capitalism. However, as the contributions to the volume reveal, capitalism encompasses more than just an economic system in which art is bought and sold alongside other goods.This volume approaches the subject of art and capitalism thematically through five distinct parts: Art Markets, Money and Myths; Work, Labour and the Artist; Capitalist Technologies; Spaces of Art and Capital: Institutions and Beyond and Crisis, Contestation and Critique. This thematic approach avoids presenting a definitive linear historical narrative of art and capitalism, allowing for an expanded and diverse approach to scholarship that addresses the relationship between the two since the advent of modernity. The volume presents multiple perspectives on capitalism in conversation with one another, including race, gender, class and global/geographical inequality.The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, fine art, museum studies, curatorial studies, politics, and visual culture.

Working Aesthetics is about the relationship between art and work under contemporary capitalism. Whilst labour used to be regarded as an unattractive subject for art, the proximity of work to everyday life has subsequently narrowed the gap between work and art. The artist is no longer considered apart from the economic, but is heralded as an example of how to work in neoliberal management textbooks. As work and life become obscured within the contemporary period, this book asks how artistic practice is affected, including those who labour for artists. Through a series of case studies, Working Aesthetics critically examines the moments in which labour and art intersect under capitalism. When did labour disappear from art production, or accounts of art history? Can we consider the dematerialization of art in the 1960s in relation to the deskilling of work? And how has neoliberal management theory adopting the artist as model worker affected artistic practices in the 21st century? With the narrowing of work and art visible in galleries and art discourse today, Working Aesthetics takes a step back to ask why labour has become a valid subject for contemporary art, and explores what this means for aesthetic culture today.