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Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis and Cultural Strategy
“This kaleidoscopic collection will help you see and comprehend the world anew—which is, in my book, what good art should do.”
—Astra Taylor
It is a scary and disorienting time for art, as it is a scary and disorienting time in general. Aesthetic experience is both overshadowed by the spectacle of current events and pressed into new connection with them. The self-image of art as a social good is collapsing under the weight of capitalism’s dysfunction.
In these incisive essays, art critic Ben Davis makes sense of our extreme present as an emerging "after-culture"—a culture whose forms and functions are being radically reshaped by cataclysmic events. In the face of catastrophe, he holds out hope that reckoning with the new realities of art, technology, activism, and the media, can help us weather the super-storms of the future.
—Astra Taylor
It is a scary and disorienting time for art, as it is a scary and disorienting time in general. Aesthetic experience is both overshadowed by the spectacle of current events and pressed into new connection with them. The self-image of art as a social good is collapsing under the weight of capitalism’s dysfunction.
In these incisive essays, art critic Ben Davis makes sense of our extreme present as an emerging "after-culture"—a culture whose forms and functions are being radically reshaped by cataclysmic events. In the face of catastrophe, he holds out hope that reckoning with the new realities of art, technology, activism, and the media, can help us weather the super-storms of the future.
180 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2022
54 people are currently reading
1492 people want to read
About the author
Ben Davis
3 books18 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Ben Davis is an art critic living in New York City. His writings have appeared in Adbusters, the Brooklyn Rail, Slate, the Village Voice, and many other publications. He is currently executive editor of Artinfo.com.
Ben Davis is an art critic living in New York City. His writings have appeared in Adbusters, the Brooklyn Rail, Slate, the Village Voice, and many other publications. He is currently executive editor of Artinfo.com.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
May 10, 2022
If you read one book on contemporary culture this year, it's gotta be this one.
September 3, 2023
it took me so long to finish this book that it became a joke among my friends that i would never finish it despite having it with me every day. BUT! it was just so thought-provoking that i NEEDED to take my time.
the book dissected contemporary issues and how their impact reverberates into the art world. each chapter covers completely different aspects of the topic, so it's hard to even summarize it here now...
highly recommend to anyone interested in current art trends and challenges and potential for its role in the future!
the book dissected contemporary issues and how their impact reverberates into the art world. each chapter covers completely different aspects of the topic, so it's hard to even summarize it here now...
highly recommend to anyone interested in current art trends and challenges and potential for its role in the future!
April 21, 2022
He writes from an exclusive interest in the intersection of art and socialist activism, focused on how art supports power or can help fight for equality and against climate change. At its best, this book describes and analyzes historical evolution of trends in art, often with a critical eye. Some essays seemed tangentially related to art, but fascinating nonetheless. While I have some resistance to explictly Marxist assertions I was able to get past those and find a lot of value in the book. The first several chapters provoked a lot of thoughts and reactions that I wanted to write down.
Chapters 1 and 3 clearly and persuasively detail ways that power shapes our understanding of art. He points out how our modern conception the "artist" as a lone genius outsider arose in the 19th-century Romantic era, as a response to the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and as a way for capitalism to commodify artistic practice. Prior to this era, there was no separate between "fine art" and "craft", and our modern notion of artist as genius is one that, say, Rafael would not recognize. Now I want to read the book he cites for this idea, "The Invention of Art". He later traces 20th-century transformations in the notion of art and of "contemporary art," then again how social media is radically transforming the art experience today. I'm also usually skeptical about generic ideas about "culture" now being worse than "culture" in some previous era: is the way the masses create and appreciate images on Instagram really so much worse from the masses' interaction with art, say, a century ago? Nonetheless, his analysis of this culture is fascinating.
In Chapter 4 he extrapolates to AI art, viewing it as a corporate tool, a natural extension of our current social media moment that flattens all of art history and removes context, intention, and meaning. He cites technologists making scary quasi-utopian claims about how their AI will replace artists. This is in keeping with his focus on the contemporary art world and how it interacts with power, but I'm still sad to see mainstream contemporary art completely dismissing the possibility of AI tools for artists, especially given the way he touches on the transformations due to past technological tools like photography and the Internet.
Indeed, one theme of the book is the way revolutionary-minded artists created innovations in art that became tools of a new consumerist drive, e.g., the way revolutionaries of 1960s art inadvertently created our current populist Instagram art world, which he parallels with the utopian hippies that created the free and open and now-scary Internet. I'd had no idea that the founder of BuzzFeed and HuffPost began as a Marxist artist.
While he doesn't discuss NFTs, this history provides useful context for the farcical revolutionary claims that NFTs will lead to some kind of power shift to the underdog artist, rather than just tools for the ambitions of those competing to become oligarchs of a new economy.
The other chapters, while fascinating, well-written, and extremely informative, I don't have a lot of specific reactions that I wanted to write down. I did find the final chapter, about the possible role that artists can perform in envisioning change, especially in the face of our current environmental catastrophe, to be unexpectedly believable and worthwhile.
Chapters 1 and 3 clearly and persuasively detail ways that power shapes our understanding of art. He points out how our modern conception the "artist" as a lone genius outsider arose in the 19th-century Romantic era, as a response to the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and as a way for capitalism to commodify artistic practice. Prior to this era, there was no separate between "fine art" and "craft", and our modern notion of artist as genius is one that, say, Rafael would not recognize. Now I want to read the book he cites for this idea, "The Invention of Art". He later traces 20th-century transformations in the notion of art and of "contemporary art," then again how social media is radically transforming the art experience today. I'm also usually skeptical about generic ideas about "culture" now being worse than "culture" in some previous era: is the way the masses create and appreciate images on Instagram really so much worse from the masses' interaction with art, say, a century ago? Nonetheless, his analysis of this culture is fascinating.
In Chapter 4 he extrapolates to AI art, viewing it as a corporate tool, a natural extension of our current social media moment that flattens all of art history and removes context, intention, and meaning. He cites technologists making scary quasi-utopian claims about how their AI will replace artists. This is in keeping with his focus on the contemporary art world and how it interacts with power, but I'm still sad to see mainstream contemporary art completely dismissing the possibility of AI tools for artists, especially given the way he touches on the transformations due to past technological tools like photography and the Internet.
Indeed, one theme of the book is the way revolutionary-minded artists created innovations in art that became tools of a new consumerist drive, e.g., the way revolutionaries of 1960s art inadvertently created our current populist Instagram art world, which he parallels with the utopian hippies that created the free and open and now-scary Internet. I'd had no idea that the founder of BuzzFeed and HuffPost began as a Marxist artist.
While he doesn't discuss NFTs, this history provides useful context for the farcical revolutionary claims that NFTs will lead to some kind of power shift to the underdog artist, rather than just tools for the ambitions of those competing to become oligarchs of a new economy.
The other chapters, while fascinating, well-written, and extremely informative, I don't have a lot of specific reactions that I wanted to write down. I did find the final chapter, about the possible role that artists can perform in envisioning change, especially in the face of our current environmental catastrophe, to be unexpectedly believable and worthwhile.
May 25, 2023
This is my new manifesto
December 19, 2022
This. Book. Was. AWESOME!!!
The relationship between art and capitalism is something I’ve always been fascinated with, and this series of essays covers so much conceptual ground that I’m left craving a reread already. I found it very accessible as a novice in both leftist politics and art history/criticism. The kinds of thinking this book encouraged leave me hungering for more. It’s not often nonfiction leaves me scouring the web for more work from the author, but here I am, ready to crack open 9.5 Theses on Art and Class
The relationship between art and capitalism is something I’ve always been fascinated with, and this series of essays covers so much conceptual ground that I’m left craving a reread already. I found it very accessible as a novice in both leftist politics and art history/criticism. The kinds of thinking this book encouraged leave me hungering for more. It’s not often nonfiction leaves me scouring the web for more work from the author, but here I am, ready to crack open 9.5 Theses on Art and Class
January 9, 2023
Despite its title, much of the book is only peripherally concerned with "art". After an odd introduction of speculative future-fiction, which was rather off-putting and had initially made me put it aside, Davis offers two focussed chapters on art and politics today that grapple quite well and concretely with many of the contradictory issues in contemporary art. The genealogy of the "autonomy" of art was useful for an introduction and these chapters on the 20thC interplay between pop-culture and fine art were quite insightful.
The turn to AI, social networks, and conspiracy theories, however, was less interesting, or at least less about art at all.
The turn to AI, social networks, and conspiracy theories, however, was less interesting, or at least less about art at all.
July 14, 2023
Excellent collection of hard looks at the bad new things, and a fine reinvention of the venerable American tradition of Trotskyist art critics.
January 20, 2025
Definitely a harder academic read but interesting nonetheless the less. I began reading this for my thesis but wanted to continue after the chapter on AI was so good. As soon as the author begins talking a lot of politics, he brings it right back to how it relates to art.
Davis addresses how art has become a means of communication for underrepresented communities and how politics is both helping and hindering the arts in different ways. He wrote about capitalism, museum work, classism, racism, and sexism within both the US political climate and the arts.
It was fascinating to learn the ways art is transforming with technology. It continues to contribute to society, in many ways without people knowing.
One of the last quotes I loved was “there are no more radical solutions left- we are forced to imagine the future in terms of radical change…”.
Davis addresses how art has become a means of communication for underrepresented communities and how politics is both helping and hindering the arts in different ways. He wrote about capitalism, museum work, classism, racism, and sexism within both the US political climate and the arts.
It was fascinating to learn the ways art is transforming with technology. It continues to contribute to society, in many ways without people knowing.
One of the last quotes I loved was “there are no more radical solutions left- we are forced to imagine the future in terms of radical change…”.
January 12, 2025
A book that combined conversations of Pepe the frog, QAnon, and Black Panther, this book still had me completely rethink the ways I consider art in my everyday life. Somehow relatable, Ben Davis brought everything back to a really well-argued thesis of art’s purpose in our political climate— with cultural appropriation, AI, and conspiracy as some of his strongest arguments.
Also, his particular conversation in Ecotopia got me thinking as someone who works in art development. With works surrounding climate radicalism, is the performative nature of upper class society investing in these artworks truly taking away from actual action?
Also, his particular conversation in Ecotopia got me thinking as someone who works in art development. With works surrounding climate radicalism, is the performative nature of upper class society investing in these artworks truly taking away from actual action?
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February 15, 2026Really great art criticism. I found Davis' observation on the tension between the internet making information free while also making it harder for writers to get paid very astute.
Also good note about the term "cultural appropriation" becoming a part of the zeitgeist of the 2010's because the logical end of capitalism is commodifying everything, even culture. And in the age of virality, where the nuance of authorship means you either profit or don't, proper attribution is ever more important.
There were tons of really interesting observations. Highly recommend this book!
Also good note about the term "cultural appropriation" becoming a part of the zeitgeist of the 2010's because the logical end of capitalism is commodifying everything, even culture. And in the age of virality, where the nuance of authorship means you either profit or don't, proper attribution is ever more important.
There were tons of really interesting observations. Highly recommend this book!
February 12, 2023
An excellent book examining and reviewing some of the major issues concerning art as well as society as a whole. The author touches, among other things, on AI technology, cultural appropriation, conspiracy theory and the different ways art is handling the climate crisis. For each chapter, he gathers thoughts from some of our time's biggest thinkers, writers and artists to shine light on a subject from different angles. It's a thought-provoking and deeply relevant read.
June 21, 2023
Plenty of insights (particularly essays such as ‘AI Aestethics and Capitalism’, or ‘Cultural Appropriation) but also plenty of tangential material that gave the book a somewhat bloated, unfocused feel at times. Given the choice, I would have gladly left out entire chapters such as ‘The Anarchist in the Network’ or ‘The Mirror of Conspiracy’ while expanding ‘Art and Ecotopia’ - the latter’s too brief and schematic treatment making it seem more like an afterthought than a topic on equal footing with the others.
Not a big fan of the speculative & gimmicky Prologue / Epilogue either.
Not a big fan of the speculative & gimmicky Prologue / Epilogue either.
March 5, 2024
Super, super interesting and thought-provoking, especially the anarchist in the machine chapter and the cultural appropriation chapter. Made me think about where art is going and the trajectory it’s on in a way I haven’t really articulated or fully thought through in years (or ever). I just wish everything got pulled together a bit more in the end, instead of the fanciful speculative future afterword. Next on art criticism: what is art? by tolstoy
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 13, 2022
Insanely good analysis combining Marxism, art, technology, and politics. Ben addresses some important questions I’ve been asking myself and his thinking leaves little within its scope overlooked.
July 1, 2023
Cogent lucid cutting. Impressive, necessary.
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March 6, 2024Ok I want to read more Marxist art history ... the liberal arts school diagnosis got me
October 23, 2024
Mr davis you sir win the internet for today👑
December 18, 2024
art in the psot-nut clarity.
art in the age of situtationship.
no amount of criticism or theory will ever make him love you.
art in the age of situtationship.
no amount of criticism or theory will ever make him love you.
December 29, 2024
i absolutely swear by this book. anyone even remotely interested in contemporary arts culture, especially in relation to capitalism and Marxism, needs to pick this up!
January 25, 2025
Good critique.
August 12, 2025
Fucking wow.
like ok wow
like ok wow
January 8, 2026
I read this to think about generative AI in art, and found it really helpful. It interprets art history through an explicitly anti-capitalist perspective. For example:
This covers a lot of ground, from the changes in how our culture thinks about art and connoisseurship, the expansion of culture beyond the museum and art gallery and the rise of "Big Fun Art" as museums turn art into spectacle and experience, the appeal of conspiracy thinking, and the challenge of political change through art.
Chapters I read: Connoisseurship and Critique, The Art World and the Culture Network, AI Aesthetics and Capitalism, Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Materialism, The Mirror of Conspiracy and Art and Ecotopia
"It is a bit silly to say that "AI will never make real culture" when all the resources of the capitalist culture industry are focused exactly on the creative operation that AI does best: analyzing what is already known to be popular, then slightly varying its pattern and-- sometimes very, very slightly -- to create a marketable new version of the same."
This covers a lot of ground, from the changes in how our culture thinks about art and connoisseurship, the expansion of culture beyond the museum and art gallery and the rise of "Big Fun Art" as museums turn art into spectacle and experience, the appeal of conspiracy thinking, and the challenge of political change through art.
Chapters I read: Connoisseurship and Critique, The Art World and the Culture Network, AI Aesthetics and Capitalism, Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Materialism, The Mirror of Conspiracy and Art and Ecotopia
February 16, 2026
kind of mindblowing for me
the second half fell off a bit
the second half fell off a bit
August 26, 2022
read this. went to a crazy museum in the middle of reading it and had many many thoughts definitely influenced by it. almost cried on my couch when reading the last sentences in the chapter about AI and the future of art. idk idk kinda wish office hours were still a thing
April 8, 2025
Perhaps the most densely constructed critique of artistic endeavor in the present moment possible? An incredible contribution that I have taken a lot from.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews