The Crisis of Ugliness: From Cubism to Pop-Art (Historical Materialism Book, 158)

Mikhail Lifshitz is a major forgotten figure in the tradition of Marxist philosophy and art history. A significant influence on Lukács, and the dedicatee of his The Young Hegel, as well as an unsurpassed scholar of Marx and Engels’s writings on art and a lifelong controversialist, Lifshitz’s work dealt with topics as various as the philosophy of Marx and the pop aesthetics of Andy Warhol. The Crisis of Ugliness (originally published in Russian by Iskusstvo, 1968), published here in English for the first time, presented with a detailed introduction by its translator David Riff, is a compact broadside against modernism in the visual arts that resists the dogmatic complacencies of Stalinist aesthetics. Its reentry into English debates on the history of Soviet aesthetics promises to re-orient our sense of the basic coordinates of a Marxist art theory. "Mikhail Lifshitz is a major forgotten figure in the tradition of Marxist philosophy and art history. A significant influence on Lukács, and the dedicatee of his The Young Hegel, as well as an unsurpassed scholar of Marx and Engels's writings on art and a lifelong controversialist, Lifshitz's work dealt with topics as various as the philosophy of Marx and the pop aesthetics of Andy Warhol. The Crisis of Ugliness (originally published in Russian by Iskusstvo, 1968), published here in English for the first time, and with a detailed introduction by its translator David Riff, is a compact broadside against modernism in the visual arts that nevertheless resists the dogmatic complacencies of Stalinist aesthetics. Its reentry into English debates on the history of Soviet aesthetics promises to re-orient our sense of the basic coordinates of a Marxist art theory." --> z ov Mikhail Lifshitz is a major forgotten figure in the tradition of Marxist philosophy and art history. A significant influence on Lukacs, and the dedicatee of Lukacs's The Young Hegel, as well as unsurpassed scholar of Marx and Engels's writings on art and a lifelong controversialist, Lifshitz's work dealt with topics as various as the philosophy of Marx and the pop aesthetics of Andy Warhol. The Crisis of Ugliness (1968), published here in English for the first time, and with a detailed introduction by its translator David Riff, is a compact broadside against modernism in the visual arts that nevertheless resists the dogmatic complacencies of Stalinist aesthetics. Its reentry into English debates about the history of Soviet aesthetics promises to re-orient our sense of the basic coordinates of a Marxist art theory ‎Contents 6 ‎Acknowledgement 8 ‎List of Illustrations 9 ‎Notes on Text and Illustrations 11 ‎Introduction. Mikhail Lifshitz: A Communist Contemporary (Riff) 12 ‎Foreword 27 ‎Chapter 1. Myth and Reality: The Legend of Cubism 34 ‎‘Scandal in Art’ 41 ‎Two Appraisals of Cubism 51 ‎G.V. Plekhanov and Cubism 59 ‎The Terms ‘Reactionary’ and ‘Bourgeois’ 81 ‎The Revolt against Things 88 ‎Fusion with Objects as an Ideal 94 ‎The Evolution of Cubism 103 ‎Painting in the Other World 108 ‎Chapter 2. The Phenomenology of the Soup Can: The Quirks of Taste 117 ‎The Economy of Painting 125 ‎Reflection’s Malaise 132 ‎Conclusion 139 ‎Chapter 3. Why am I Not a Modernist? 146 ‎References 158 ‎Index 162 ‎Illustration Section 166 Intro ‎Contents ‎Acknowledgement ‎List of Illustrations ‎Notes on Text and Illustrations ‎Introduction. Mikhail Lifshitz: A Communist Contemporary (Riff) ‎Foreword ‎Chapter 1. Myth and Reality: The Legend of Cubism ‎'Scandal in Art' ‎Two Appraisals of Cubism ‎G.V. Plekhanov and Cubism ‎The Terms 'Reactionary' and 'Bourgeois' ‎The Revolt against Things ‎Fusion with Objects as an Ideal ‎The Evolution of Cubism ‎Painting in the Other World ‎Chapter 2. The Phenomenology of the Soup Can: The Quirks of Taste ‎The Economy of Painting ‎Reflection's Malaise ‎Conclusion ‎Chapter 3. Why am I Not a Modernist?‎References ‎Index ‎Illustration Section