Since the global financial crash of 2008, artists have become increasingly engaged in a wide range of cultural activism targeted against capitalism, political authoritarianism, colonial legacies, gentrification, but also in opposition to their own exploitation. They have also absorbed and reflected forms of protest within their art practice itself. The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art maps, critiques, celebrates and historicises activist art, exploring its current urgency alongside the processes which have given rise to activism by artists, and activist forms of art.

Author Gregory Sholette approaches his subject from the unusual dual perspective of commentator (as scholar and writer) and insider (as activist artist). He describes a new wave of activist art taking place not only within community-based protest groups, as it has for decades, but also amongst professionally trained, MFA-bearing art practitioners, many of whom, by choice or by circumstance, refuse to respect the conventional borders separating painting from protest, or art from utility. The book explores the subtle distinction between activist forms of art and protest by artists, and proposes that contemporary activist art and art activism constitute a broader paradigm shift that reflects the crisis of contemporary capitalism.

About the Author
Gregory Sholette is an activist artist, writer and Professor of studio art at Queens College, CUNY. He has participated in, documented and written about activist art for over forty years.

Reviews

'Sholette's book is a tour de force.' - We Make Money Not Art

'Sholette manages to provide a well-crafted, comprehensive, and well-thought-out trajectory of western activist art that is not only deeply engaging, but maintains a critical insight and unique perspective throughout.' - Alex Nicholls, Field: A Journal of Socially-Engaged Art Criticism

Selected as one of The Art Newspaper's Top Art Books of 2022:
'As a key member of the activist group Gulf Labor Coalition, Gregory Sholette has a unique perspective [...] This informed analysis spans more than 60 years of art activism' - Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper

'Sholette's latest book continues to expand our understanding of the vital, inspiring, and too often dismissed relationship between art and activism. It is an infinitely valuable historical source, but most significantly it is packed with models for future resistances.' - Lucy R. Lippard, author of Get the Message? A Decade of Art for Social Change

Book Information
ISBN 9781848224414
Author Gregory Sholette
Format Hardback
Page Count 176
Imprint Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Publisher Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd