Book summary

Clark, the Chancellor's Professor of Modern Art at UC-Berkeley, argues that modernist art and socialist politics have intertwined histories. His history follows painting from the 18th-century work of David to the 20th-century work of Jackson Pollock to show how modernism and socialism ended simultaneously.

Media reviews

"Within Clark's home field of art history, his book challenges--he hopes it refutes--nearly every feature of the prevailing histories of modernist art. If other art historians attempt to stick to their guns, they will soon see that Clark has spiked many of their weapons....[H]e so thoroughly uproots conventional methods and assumptions about [the history of vanguard art of the past two centuries] that we other art historians will have to rewrite our texts. Few of us will agree with Clark's severe reduction of the range of evidence that social historians can use, and many of us will retain our conviction in the efficacy of social action. But we will all benefit from his memorable demonstrations that the forms of paintings are visible signs of social meanings."