Social Forms

About this book

In 'Social Forms: A Short History of Political Art', renowned critic, curator and writer Christian Viveros-Fauné has picked 50 representative artworks --from Francisco de Goya's The Disasters of War (1810-20) to David Hammons' In the Hood (1993)-- that give voice to some of modern art's strongest calls to political action.0In accessible and witty entries on each piece, Viveros-Fauné paints a picture of the context in which each work was created, the artist's background and the historical impact of each contribution. Sometimes artists create projects that subvert existing power structures; sometimes they make artwork so powerful it challenges the very fabric of society. Whether it is Picasso's Guernica and its place at the 1937 World's Fair, or Jenny Holzer's Truisms (1977-79), which still stop us in our tracks, this book tells the story behind some of the most important and unexpected encounters between artworks and the real worlds they engage with.