Marx's Lost Aesthetic: Karl Marx and the Visual Arts [Paperback]

Margaret A. Rose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0521369797 | ISBN-13: 978-0521369794

This book offers an original and challenging study of Marx's contact with the visual arts, aesthetic theories, and art policies in nineteenth-century Europe. It differs from previous discussions of Marxist aesthetic theory in looking at Marx's views from an art-historical rather than from a literary perspective, and in placing those views in the context of the art practices, theories, and policies of Marx's own time. Dr Rose begins her work by discussing Marx's planned treatise on Romantic art of 1842 against the background of the philosophical debates, cultural policies, and art practices of the 1840s, and looks in particular at the patronage given to the group of German artists known as the 'Nazarenes' in those years, who are discussed in relation to both the English Pre-Raphaelites, popular in the London known to Marx, and to the Russian Social Realists of the 1860s. The author goes on to consider claims of twentieth-century Marxist art theories and practices to have represented Marx's own views on art. The book the conflicting claims made on Marx's views by the Soviet avant-garde Constructivists of the 1920s and of the Socialist Realists who followed them are considered, and are related back to the aesthetic theories and practices discussed in the earlier chapters.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

An original study of Marx's views of the visual arts interpreted from an art historical, rather than literary, perspective. The text focuses on the patronage of the German "Nazarenes" during the 1840s and the way twentieth century social theorists and artists have interpreted Marx.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (September 30, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521369797
• ISBN-13: 978-0521369794
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,326,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marx and Soviet art theory considered, January 31, 2007

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M. A. Krul (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marx's Lost Aesthetic: Karl Marx and the Visual Arts (Paperback)

Margaret Rose, a specialist in Heine and German literature in general, has written this work as a simple but effective overview of Marx' views on art and the reception of these views in the (early) Soviet Union.

She discusses Marx' artistic taste and his struggle against the German art school known as the Nazarenes, who were reactionary romantics pining for the idylle of the Middle Ages, which was heavily supported both politically and financially by the Prussian Kings. Heinrich Heine loathed this group and satirized them often, and Bauer and Feuerbach also wrote against them, which influenced the young Marx into making his few theoretical statements on art in opposition to this starry-eyed romanticism. Rose also considers Marx' cryptic comment on Greek art being the youth of mankind, and thereby being attractive to us still, and on the possible interpretations of Marx' view of art in the context of the general development of a society, historically.

Rose makes much use of Saint-Simon's conception of art as an avant-garde, paving the way together with scientists and engineers to create the new world, to contrast it with reflectionist theories of art. The early Soviet art movements such as Constructivism are seen as supporters of a Marxist art view based on the prior idea, whereas Socialist Realism is a clear enforcement of the latter view on art theory. Margaret Rose then concludes that the claims of Socialist Realism to Marx' support are probably not tenable; however, we know too little about what Marx (and Engels for that matter) thought of art theory to be able to produce an alternative view, so the Saint-Simonian seems the most applicable for the time being.

This book is clear and interesting reading for the art theory layman. It comes with many pictures of art works discussed, but unfortunately (possibly because this is a reprint edition) their quality is rather low. It may be useful to look up the art works on the internet or in a book of art instead to get a better view. This book is short and narrow in its subject, but it covers it well and is interesting at all levels of art knowledge.