Counter-Realism - Art and Subjectivity in Contemporary Capitalism

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.

About the author

Tamara Trodd is Lecturer in European Modernism at the University of Edinburgh

Product details

• Authors: Tamara Trodd, Trodd Tamara
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 16.12.2025
• EAN: 9781526190215
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-9021-5
• No. of pages: 280
• Series: Rethinking Art's Histories
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; Theory of art, Capitalism, ART / Film & Video, ART / Art & Politics, History of Art, History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Early 21st century c 2000 to c 2050, Electronic, holographic & video art, Digital, video and new media arts, ART / History / 20th & 21st Century