9.5 Theses on Art and Class
In 9.5 Theses on Art and Class, Ben Davis takes on a broad array of contemporary art's most persistent debates: How does creative labour fit into the economy? Is art merging with fashion and entertainment? What can we expect from political art? Davis argues that returning class to the centre of the discussion can play a vital role in tackling the challenges that visual art faces today, including the biggest challenge of all — how to maintain faith in art itself in a dysfunctional world.
Reviews
Just when it seemed that contemporary art writing and the subject of real-life politics had permanently parted ways, along comes the young New York critic Ben Davis with a book that brings them together. No cheerleading here, no swoony prosody, no easy kiss-offs; just smart, ardent, illusion-puncturing observation and analysis on the intersection of art, commerce, and — the elephant in the art-fair VIP lounge — class. None of this would matter much if he didn't tell us why we should care, but he does. Under all his excoriations lies a faith in art as an agent of transformation toward a post-neoliberal, post-greed society that could be, should be.
Holland Cotter, New York Times
Davis is deeply attuned to contemporary art and the contradictory ways it is expressed and contained within culture more broadly. More than a book of political essays, 9.5 Theses on Art and Class offers a fresh theory that is useful to anyone wrestling with the challenges of what art is or can do.
Lauren Cornell, curator, New Museum
Bracing, provocative, exasperated, and good-humored, Davis is skillfully committed to getting the best out of art and art theory — and the world.
China Miéville, author, 'The City & The City'
9.5 Theses on Art and Class is the first book I've read by an art critic that spoke to the world I lived and worked in as an artist. Incisive, irreverent, and intellectually fearless. A truth-bomb of a book.
Molly Crabapple, artist
