This companion is an essential contribution to the study of historical materialism in general and the social history of art in particular.
Each chapter in the collection focuses on a key figure, concept or historical epoch. Increasingly, scholars adopt an array of Marxist methods intertwined with a host of other theoretical practices, particularly the historiography of key issues regarding hegemony, ideology and identity. Ideological issues of connoisseurship, patronage and analyses of the artwork as a form of labor and leisure are essential to the practice of Marxisms in art history. This collection spotlights a plurality of Marxian theories in which the ideas of such figures as Walter Benjamin, Guy Debord, T.J. Clark and many others are debated and developed through analyses of the socio-historical conditions that impact how art is produced, circulated and received. This ultimately underscores that the historical contextualization of artworks and their "markets" within a class-based society is crucial for writing socially engaged art history.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual studies, visual sociology, communication studies, and the sociology of art.