Counter-realism

Art and subjectivity in contemporary capitalism

Tamara Trodd

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781526190215
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526190208
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art & Politics

Counter-realism: Art and subjectivity in contemporary capitalism is an ambitious and original study of key works of film and video art made since 2008 by leading contemporary artists, including William Kentridge, Amalia Ulman, Melanie Gilligan, Lizzie Fitch/Ryan Trecartin and Elizabeth Price. It argues their work should be understood as a reconfigured form of 'realism', expressing economic forces and political pressures across contexts ranging from post-apartheid South Africa, through austerity-era Spain, to contemporary Britain and North America. Supported by original artist interviews and detailed visual analysis of individual works of art, as well as a wide-ranging research base, which synthesises arguments from a variety of disciplines including art history, literary, film and political studies, the book is clearly written, and makes legible the ways in which some of the most vivid and compelling works of contemporary moving-image art engage with historical and contemporary political debates.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: counter-realism and historical returns
• 1 William Kentridge, Henry Moore and the subject of mining
• 2 Amalia Ulman, Simone Weil and the subject of force
• 3 Bertolt Brecht and the subject of realism in the works of Melanie Gilligan and Ryan Trecartin
• 4 Elizabeth Price, Alain Resnais and the absence of the subject
• Conclusion: making the subject of contemporary art visible
• Index