Art History as Social Praxis: The Collected Writings of David Craven brings together more than thirty essays that chart the development of Cravenâs voice as an unorthodox Marxist who applied historical materialism to the study of modern art. This book demonstrates the range and versatility of David Cravenâs praxis as a âdemocratic socialistâ art historian who assessed the essential role the visual arts play in imagining more just and equitable societies. The essays collected here reveal Cravenâs lifelong commitment to exposing interstices between western and non-western cultures by researching the reciprocating influences between First- and Third-World artists, critics and historians.
David Lee Craven, Ph.D. (1979), University of North Carolina, was Distinguished Professor at University of New Mexico and passed away in 2012. He was an art historian who displayed rare intellect and industry. In his lifetime Craven wrote more than fifteen monographs and exhibition catalogues on such diverse topics as Diego Rivera, Abstract Expressionism, Rudolf Baranik and art associated with Latin American revolutions. In addition to being a dedicated professor and inspirational lecturer, he published over 150 essays, articles and reviews in such academic journals as Art History, Kritische Berichte and Third Text and mass-circulation publications such as Arts Magazine and Tema Celeste; further, his writings have appeared in dozens of anthologies, encyclopaedias and newspapers.
Brian Winkenweder, Ph.D. (2004), Stony Brook University is Professor of Art History at Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon. He co-edited Dialectical Conversions: Donald Kuspitâs Art Criticism with David Craven (Liverpool University Press, 2011). He also published 'David Cravenâs Future Perfect' at the online journal Third Text.
Acknowledgements List of Sources
Introduction: David Craven, Democratic Socialism and Art History
Artists
1 Mondrian De-Mythologised: Towards a Newer Virgil
2 Charles Biederman and Art Theory
3 Marcel Duchamp and the Perceptual Dimension of Conceptual Art
4 Robert Smithsonâs âLiquidating Intellectâ
5 Richard Serra and the Phenomenology of Perception
6 Hans Haacke and the Aesthetics of Dependency Theory
7 Norman Lewis as Political Activist and Post-Colonial Artist
27 Realism Revisited and Re-Theorised in âPan-Americanâ Terms
Abstract Expressionism
28 Abstract Expressionism, Automatism, and the Age of Automation
29 Abstract Expressionism and Third World Art: A Post-Colonial Approach to âAmericanâ Art
30 New Documents: The Unpublished F.B.I. Files on Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb
31 A Legacy for the Left: Abstract Expressionism as Anti-Imperialist Art
32 Postscript. Different Conceptions of Art: An Outline
Bibliography Index
All interested in Post-Colonial studies and Marxist-inflected cultural analysis, with particular regard for Critical Theory, Latin American art history and Abstract Expressionism.