To Hell with Herbert Read


Autoria(s): Jordan, Mel; Beech, Dave; Hewitt, Andy
Data(s)

2015

Resumo

Freee write manifestos by taking a pencil (or a laptop) to an historical text, usually belonging to the entwined traditions of the avant-garde and political activism. Sometimes, as Tristan Tzara advised, we choose the text according to its length, while other times, such as in this instance, we selected the text according to the conditions of the invitation that triggered the writing of the manifesto. Our manifesto ‘To Hell with Herbert Read’ was written originally as a contribution to a conference held in Manchester that took its title from Herbert Read’s book ‘To Hell with Culture’. ‘To Hell with Culture’ is a book that cuts itself off from the world whereas ‘To Hell with Herbert Read’ relocates Read’s book in a world of cultural, social, economic and political actualities that are part of common experience. Read rejects culture because he thinks it is a useless, wasteful, elitist, puffed-up, decorative supplement to the functional, factual, palpable, purposeful world of things. He is a positivist kind of modernist who presents himself as the opposite, an enemy of the status quo. He is an anarchist of a particularly bourgeois hue: he wants us all to have decent pots and pans, not the inferior ones that are supplied by market forces cheaply. Rather than taking his aim precisely to target the dominant forces of his day - the industrial capitalists and their financiers - he rejects the world and all its inhabitants. He not only despises elitist culture but popular culture too.

Formato

image

Identificador

http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/1746/1/Mel%20Jordan_To%20hell%20with%20Herbert%20Read_2015.jpg

Jordan, Mel <http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/view/creators/Jordan=3AMel=3A=3A.html>, Beech, Dave <http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/view/creators/Beech=3ADave=3A=3A.html> and Hewitt, Andy <http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/view/creators/Hewitt=3AAndy=3A=3A.html>, 2015, Journal Article, To Hell with Herbert Read Anarchist Studies, 23 (2). pp. 38-46. ISSN 0967-3393

Publicador

Lawrence & Wishart

Relação

https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/anarchist-studies/23-2

http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/1746/

Palavras-Chave #W100 Fine Art
Tipo

Journal Article

PeerReviewed