In a sweeping survey of art from the dawn of the bourgeois era to the present day, John Molyneux explains what makes artistic production under capitalism unique, moving, and possibly revolutionary.

John Molyneux is a socialist, activist and writer. Formerly a lecturer at Portsmouth University, he now lives in Dublin. His many books include Rembrandt and Revolution (Redwords 2001), Lenin for Today (Bookmarks 2017), Will the Revolution be Televised (Bookmarks 2012), and Marxism and the Party (Haymarket 2017).

Introduction

What is art?

How we judge art

Michelangelo and Human Emancipation

Rembrandt and Revolution

Picasso: Les Desmoiselles D'Avignon

Sensation Exhibition

Tracey Emin

Short Reviews: Jackson Pollock; Andy Warhol; Francis Bacon; Rubens

The Liberty Of Appearing: Yasser Alwan

How Art Develops

Dialectics of Modernism

Conclusion