Art and multitude : nine letters on art ; followed by Metamorphoses : art and immaterial labour

Nine Letters On Art, Written To Friends From Exile In France In The 1980s. Starting From Earlier Materialist Approaches To Art, Negri Relates Artistic Production To The Structures Of Social Production Characteristic Of Each Historical Era. This Enables Him To Define The Nature Of Both Material And Artistic Production In The Era Of Post-modernity And Post-fordism - The Era Negri Characterizes As That Of Immaterial Labour. Negri Then Seeks To Define Artistic Beauty In This New Era, And This He Does In Terms Of Concepts That Have Become Fundamental To His Thinking - Singularity, Multitude, Abstraction, Collective Work, Event, The Biopolitical, The Common. Art Is Living Labour, And Therefore Invention Of Singularity, Of Singular Figures And Objects. But This Expressive Act Only Achieves Beauty When The Signs And Language Through Which It Expresses Itself Turn Themselves Into Community, When They Are Contained Within A Common Project. The Beautiful Is Not The Act Of Imagining, But An Imagination That Has Become Action. Art, In This Sense, Is Multitude. Twenty Years Later Negri Wrote A New Text, 'metamorphoses: Art And Immaterial Labour', Which Synthesizes These Elements Into A Single Exposition, And This Text Forms The Concluding Chapter Of This Book--publisher's Description, P. [4] Of Cover. Nine Letters On Art. Letter To Gianmarco On The Abstract -- Letter To Carlo On The Postmodern -- Letter To Giorgio On The Sublime -- Letter To Manfredo On Collective Work -- Letter To Massimo On Beauty -- Letter To Nanni On Constructing -- Letter To Silvano On The Event -- Letter To Raul On The Body -- Letter To Marie-magdeleine On The Biopolitical -- Postscript. Metamorphoses : Art And Immaterial Labour. Antonio Negri ; Translated By Ed Emery. Metamorphoses Talk Given At The Tate Britain, Jan. 19 2008. Includes Bibliographical References. Nine letters on art, written to friends from exile in France in the 1980s. Starting from earlier materialist approaches to art, Negri relates artistic production to the structures of social production characteristic of each historical era. This enables him to define the nature of both material and artistic production in the era of post-modernity and post-Fordism -- the era Negri characterizes as that of immaterial labour. Negri then seeks to define artistic beauty in this new era, and this he does in terms of concepts that have become fundamental to his thinking -- singularity, multitude, abstraction, collective work, event, the biopolitical, the common. Art is living labour, and therefore invention of singularity, of singular figures and objects, But this expressive act only achieves beauty when the signs and language through which it expresses itself turn themselves into community, when they are contained within a common project, The beautiful is not the act of imagining, but an imagination that has become action. Art, in this sense, is multitude. Twenty years later Negri wrote a new text, ̀Metamorphoses: Art and Immaterial Labour', which synthesizes these elements into a single exposition, and this text forms the concluding chapter of this book. --Book Jacket Antonio Negri is an internationally famous political thinker. The book consists of nine letters on art written by Negri, about his conception of art in the postmodern world. "Metamorphoses: art and immaterial labour" talk given at the Tate Britain, 19 Jan. 2008.