Art Work Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Katja Praznik is an associate professor in the Department of Media Study/Arts Management Program at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Art Work Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism
<p>"In this timely book, the sociologist of culture Katja Praznik analyses the paradoxical nature of art as socially useful labor and parses the regimes of compensation that artists receive under different political systems."</p> - Vladimir Kulić (<em>Critique d’art</em>) <p>"It is here that the main strength of Praznik’s book lies: in Praznik’s unwavering commitment to leaving no ideological stone unturned and to demystifying even the dearest stories told by and to artists as well as by and to art appreciators."</p> - Andrija Filipovic, Singidunum University (<em>H-Net Reviews (H-Socialisms)<em>) </em></em><p><em><em>"This book is not just for those who know and care about art and cultural politics in Yugoslavia...The real value in the book is the explicit analysis of the western bourgeois conception of art, it’s supposed counter in actually existing socialism, and the gradual erosion of the pay and conditions of art workers according to national political imperatives and rapidly shifting geopolitical trends. As such, it deserves a large and diverse audience and seems set to have a long shelf-life and value beyond the current systemic polycrisis."</em></em></p><em><em> - Jon Blackwood, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University (<em>Left Art Review</em>)</em></em>
In Art Work, Katja Praznik counters the Western understanding of art – as a passion for self-expression and an activity done out of love, without any concern for its financial aspects – and instead builds a case for understanding art as a form of invisible labour. Focusing on the experiences of art workers and the history of labour regulation in the arts in socialist Yugoslavia, Praznik helps elucidate the contradiction at the heart of artistic production and the origins of the mystification of art as labour.
This profoundly interdisciplinary book highlights the Yugoslav socialist model of culture as the blueprint for uncovering the interconnected aesthetic and economic mechanisms at work in the exploitation of artistic labour. It also shows the historical trajectory of how policies toward art and artistic labour changed by the end of the 1980s. Calling for a fundamental rethinking of the assumptions behind Western art and exploitative labour practices across the world, Art Work will be of interest to scholars in East European studies, art theory, and cultural policy, as well as to practicing artists.
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction: The Paradoxical Visibility of Yugoslav Art Workers, or Should Artists Strike?
1. The Autonomy of Art and the Emancipation of Labour
2. A Feminist Approach to the Disavowed Economy of Art
3. The Making of Yugoslav Art Workers: Artistic Labour and the Socialist Institution of Art
4. The Mystification of Artistic Labour under Socialism
5. Art Workers and the Hidden Class Conflict of Late Socialism
6. The Contradictions of 1980s Alternative Art
Conclusion: Post-Yugoslav Dispossession and the Contradictions of Artistic Labour after Socialism
<p>"In this timely book, the sociologist of culture Katja Praznik analyses the paradoxical nature of art as socially useful labor and parses the regimes of compensation that artists receive under different political systems."</p> - Vladimir Kulić (<em>Critique d’art</em>) <p>"It is here that the main strength of Praznik’s book lies: in Praznik’s unwavering commitment to leaving no ideological stone unturned and to demystifying even the dearest stories told by and to artists as well as by and to art appreciators."</p> - Andrija Filipovic, Singidunum University (<em>H-Net Reviews (H-Socialisms)<em>) </em></em><p><em><em>"This book is not just for those who know and care about art and cultural politics in Yugoslavia...The real value in the book is the explicit analysis of the western bourgeois conception of art, it’s supposed counter in actually existing socialism, and the gradual erosion of the pay and conditions of art workers according to national political imperatives and rapidly shifting geopolitical trends. As such, it deserves a large and diverse audience and seems set to have a long shelf-life and value beyond the current systemic polycrisis."</em></em></p><em><em> - Jon Blackwood, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University (<em>Left Art Review</em>)</em></em>
In Art Work, Katja Praznik counters the Western understanding of art – as a passion for self-expression and an activity done out of love, without any concern for its financial aspects – and instead builds a case for understanding art as a form of invisible labour. Focusing on the experiences of art workers and the history of labour regulation in the arts in socialist Yugoslavia, Praznik helps elucidate the contradiction at the heart of artistic production and the origins of the mystification of art as labour.
This profoundly interdisciplinary book highlights the Yugoslav socialist model of culture as the blueprint for uncovering the interconnected aesthetic and economic mechanisms at work in the exploitation of artistic labour. It also shows the historical trajectory of how policies toward art and artistic labour changed by the end of the 1980s. Calling for a fundamental rethinking of the assumptions behind Western art and exploitative labour practices across the world, Art Work will be of interest to scholars in East European studies, art theory, and cultural policy, as well as to practicing artists.
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction: The Paradoxical Visibility of Yugoslav Art Workers, or Should Artists Strike?
1. The Autonomy of Art and the Emancipation of Labour
2. A Feminist Approach to the Disavowed Economy of Art
3. The Making of Yugoslav Art Workers: Artistic Labour and the Socialist Institution of Art
4. The Mystification of Artistic Labour under Socialism
5. Art Workers and the Hidden Class Conflict of Late Socialism
6. The Contradictions of 1980s Alternative Art
Conclusion: Post-Yugoslav Dispossession and the Contradictions of Artistic Labour after Socialism
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Katja Praznik is an associate professor in the Department of Media Study/Arts Management Program at the State University of New York at Buffalo.