Art between Knowledge and Ideology. The Place of Ideology in Materialist Histories and Theories of Art

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Jeremy Spencer

Camberwell College, University of the Arts London

j.c.spencer@camberwell.arts.ac.uk

Abstract:This essay deals with the art and ideology relation theoretically and historically. It considers how the relation was conceived in the work of Marxist scholars of art and culture and in Althusserian Marxism. The focus is the theorisation of this relation and this relation as the foundation for a political aesthetics and a critique of discipline of art history. This paper addresses the specificity of the art history that emerged from this relation as a methodological approach and the claim that its foregrounding enables us to see artworks differently and “better”. It is suggested that as a foundation for a political aesthetics the art/ideology relation operates akin to strategies of Brechtian practice and theory.

Keywords:Louis Althusser; Pierre Macherey; T. J. Clark; Ideology; Politics of Aesthetics; Method.