It is by seeing the roles culture takes in various human struggles for power and resources that we can also make out the shape of systems in all of their oppressive structure. Let us put that at the centre of our art-historical analysis. Let us stop being affirmative. Let us examine the barbarism supported by and emanating from art.’ Paul B. Jaskot In this lively polemic, Paul B. Jaskot confronts art history’s ideological preoccupation with the art object. To unbind art history from this fixation, Jaskot proposes centring our art-historical inquiry on systems of power, rather than on the art object. Modelling this shift, Jaskot asks: what might an art history of oppression, power and barbarism look like? The study that follows is divided into three parts empire, war and labour which each draw from a constellation of examples, ranging from the architecture of the early modern era to that of Nazi Germany, from the transatlantic slave trade to contemporary exhibition making. Also featuring a photo essay by Steve Harp, this book presents a prescient case for how art history can make a meaningful contribution to understanding systems of power and why such a project is needed now more than ever. Paul B. Jaskot’s The Tyranny of the Object is the third title for Power Polemics, a series that puts art hard up against political and personal viewpoints from some of the leading thinkers and writers in the field today.
