Art as Demonstration

A Revolutionary Recasting of Knowledge

Sven Spieker

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English

MIT Press
12 March 2024

The Arts: General & Reference

How artists wield demonstration to question the status quo both aesthetically and politically, marshaling art and education as powerful agents of change.

How artists wield demonstration to question the status quo both aesthetically and politically, marshaling art and education as powerful agents of change.

Demonstration, in short, says- See here. It is the practice of pointing to something in order to explain or contest it. As such, Sven Spieker argues that demonstration has helped reshape art from the height of the Cold War to the late twentieth century, reformatting our understanding of how art and political engagement relate to each other. Focusing on Western Europe (especially Germany), Eastern Europe, and the United States, Art as Demonstration expands on contemporary discussions of art-as-protest, activism, and resistance. Spieker shows how a closer, more historical look at art's connection with demonstration reconnects us with earlier efforts, notably by the early twentieth-century avant-garde, to marshal art for the purpose of instruction and engagement.

Art as Demonstration reconceives the history of postwar art in Eastern and Western Europe from the perspective of demonstration, understood formally (as a technique for showing and pointing) as well as politically (as protest, resistance, etc.). Close analyses of individual artworks reveal how the deployment of demonstration has changed over time. Spieker shows how ""protest"" and ""resistance"" organize art and artists not only politically but also and especially formally and aesthetically-a development of particular importance in the Cold War art and politics of Eastern Europe. The book illustrates how from the 1960s onward demonstration radically changed the way artists thought about art- no longer as an object but as a form of education.

By: Sven Spieker
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9780262048712
ISBN 10: 026204871X
Pages: 392
Publication Date: 12 March 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sven Spieker is the founding editor of ARTMargins print journal and ARTMargins Online and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of The Big Archive and the editor of Destruction (both MIT Press), and editor of Akusmatik im Labor- Kultur-Kunst-Medien.

Reviews for Art as Demonstration: A Revolutionary Recasting of Knowledge

“Using close analysis of individual works, particularly from the 1960s onwards, [Art as Demonstration] highlights how artists’ perspectives on art have evolved from isolated objects to forms of education.” —Artnet “Art as Demonstration offers significant value with its unique case studies and methodology.” —H-Net “Spieker’s detailed case-studies are of interest to anyone looking at the intersection of art, demonstration, protest and knowledge.” —International Affairs