Some of the import Marxist works on art include Plekhanov's *Art and Social Life* which attempted to develop a deterministic theory of art. He wrote: "the art of any people has always, in my opinion, an intimate causal connection with their economy. . ." While in primitive societies, art in his view often had utilitarian functions, in more advanced societies, while having utilitarian origins, esthetic enjoyment becomes a pleasure in its own right and art becomes determined only indirectly through the economy, via the mediating influences of class divisions and class domination.
Georg Lukacs is certainly an important Marxist writer on esthetics, for example see his *Realism In Our Time: Literature and the Class Struggle*. Lukacs defense of realism in the arts has been quite influential among Marxists.
Bertolt Brecht was influential both as one of the major dramatists of this century and also as a critic and theorist. A collection of essays on theater can be found in *Brecht on Theater* ed. by John WIllett, and *Brecht: A Collection of Critical Pieces*, ed. Erika Munk. Brecht among other things criticized the dialectics of the Frankfurters as being insufficiently materialistic, while rejecting Lukacs' defense of realism as being undialectical, and suppressive of the imagination of readers. Brecht, himself, is noted for his notions of "epic" or "dialectical" theater and the "distance-creating" techniques of acting directing, and writing.
Several of the Frankfurters wrote extensively on the arts. Walter Benjamin, has been very influential. Probably his best known essay is his "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction* which argued that art is inseparable from its environment of technology and social class. Theodore Adorno wrote extensively on music. He was trained both as a philosopher having written a doctoral dissertation on Husserl and had professional training in music, having studied composition and piano under Alban Berg and Eduard Steuermann. On music, Adorno wrote *Philosophy of Modern Music*. Other Frankfurters wrote on art as well. Thus Horkheimer wrote an essay "Art and Mass Culture" which can be found in his volume *Critical Theory*.
Both Brecht and the Frankfurters provided Marxist defenses of modernism in the arts as opposed to Lukacs' sophisticated defense of socialist realism.
Arnold Hauser has already mentioned by several people. Another important Marxist art critic of the 1930s was Max Raphael who wrote *Proudhon, Marx, Picasso: Three Studies in the Sociology of Art* which comprised three studies in the sociology of art. One of these studies included the development of a Marxist theory of art based on Marx's *Grundrisse* which attempted to construct a sociology of art that would overcome the weaknesses that Raphael perceived in existing dialectical materialist analyses of art. Raphael directed attention to Marx's notion of Greek mythology as mediating between the economic base and Greek art, thereby raising anew the issue of the relations between art and mythology. Marx's characterization of the "eternal charm" of Greek art was criticized by Raphael as being inconsistent with historical materialism. For Raphael the periodic revivals of interest in Greek art and classical culture that have occurred throughout European history are seen as manifestations of cultural crises as the consequence of economic and social changes. Raphael applied his sociology of art to the analysis of Picasso's work. In Raphael's view, Picasso was an exemplar of artistic modernism which he linked to the transition from competitive capitalism to monopoly capitalism.
Still another import Marxist art scholar is Meyer Schapiro who was a professor of art history at Columbia University and a leading figure in Partisan Review. His earlier writings tended to emphasize the social determinants of art production such as his articles on Romanesque and Mozarabic art, on Courbet and popular imagery and on the nature of abstract art. After the 1930s his interest shifted towards psychology, philosophy, and semiotics but he retained a commitment to an undogmatic Marxism which he maintained provided the best basis for a general theory of art.
Jim Farmelant
On Fri, 10 Sep 1999 21:09:35 EDT Rkmickey at aol.com writes:
>Stephen E Philion wrote:
>>A friend has asked me to suggest some works by Marxists on art, or
>art
>>related...
>
>Look for Arnold Hauser's "A Social History of Art" (4 vols.), which I
>think
>has been reprinted recently. Also, there was a good anthology called
>"Marxism and Art" edited by Maynard Solomon published by Vintage in
>the
>1970s, now out of print, I believe. Lee Baxandall also edited one or
>more
>anthologies on Marxism & art.
>
>K. Mickey
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