David Joselit

An Allegory of Criticism

In the 1980s a new critical desideratum arose: to subvert. Works of art—especially those engaged in various modes of appropriation—were seen to unveil the mechanisms of commercial culture, and in so doing to deliver a fatal blow to the society of the spectacle.2 When Sherrie Levine, for instance, rephotographed the reproduction of a modernist photograph, or Jeff Koons imprisoned a pristine vacuum cleaner in Plexiglas, these works were interpreted as blunt reiterations of reified social relations. In a dazzling instance of vulgar Freudianism (especially remarkable for an art world besotted with Lacan), such acts of revelation were themselves regarded as politically efficacious, just as the analysand’s free associative speech is supposed by her analyst to release her from the grip of pathology.3 What I wish to remark on, however, is not the legitimacy of such judgments, but rather the distinctive nature of their form. It is worth noting that in the years between the respective heydays of modernist and postmodernist criticism in the United States, the locus of aesthetic value shifted from quality to criticality—from the “good” to the “subversive.” I take it as axiomatic that with postmodernism the art object began to absorb the critic’s function into itself, rendering the boundary

Yippie Pop: Abbie Hoffman, Andy Warhol, and Sixties Media Politics

Did you ever hear Andy Warhol talk? ... Well, I would like to combine his style and that of Castros. Warhol understands modern media. Castro has the passion for social change. Its not easy. Ones a fag and the other is the epitome of virility. If I were forced to make the choice I would choose Castro, but right now in this period of change in the country the styles of the two can be blended. Its not guerrilla warfare but, well maybe a good term is monkey warfare. If the country becomes more repressive we must become Castros. If it becomes more tolerant we must become Warhols.1

Painting Beside Itself

OCTOBER 130, Fall 2009, pp. 125–134.

What to Do with Pictures

OCTOBER 138, Fall 2011, pp. 81–94.

Afrotropes: A Conversation with Huey Copeland and Krista Thompson

Huey Copeland and Krista Thompson speak with several October editors about afrotropes, recurrent visual forms that have emerged within and become central to the formation of African diasporic culture and identity. Copeland and Thompson argue that ultimately such forms are transformed and deformed in response to the specific social, political, and institutional conditions that inform the experiences of black people as well as changing perceptions of blackness.

Seeing Oneself Seeing: A Conversation with Lucy Raven

Artist Lucy Raven speaks with David Joselit about her multidisciplinary practice and contemporary notions of image-making and viewing. Reflecting on the production and circulation of both analog and digital images—how they function, where they come from, and how they get distributed—Ravens animated films aim to denaturalize the process of viewing and draw attention to the ways in which films are inextricably bound up in complex systems of global commerce and finance.