‘The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonisation and Global Literature’ by Peter J Kalliney reviewed by Daniel Neofetou

Article


Neofetou, D. 2025. ‘The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonisation and Global Literature’ by Peter J Kalliney reviewed by Daniel Neofetou. Marx and Philosophy Review of Books.
TypeArticle
Title‘The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonisation and Global Literature’ by Peter J Kalliney reviewed by Daniel Neofetou
AuthorsNeofetou, D.
Abstract

Art which is not explicitly and overtly propagandistic is difficult to pin down to a determinate position on the political spectrum. There are exceptions, such as the mainstream Hollywood film, which has always served to essentialise the norms of US society and thus provide, in the words of Fredric Jameson, ‘the apprenticeship to a specific culture, to an everyday life as a cultural practice’ (Jameson 2009: 443). However, for the most part, a substantial amount of legwork is required to make the case that a painting or a poem or a piece of music has some inherent political bent.

Given this, it is unsurprising that scholars have alighted upon the state patronage of artists, especially those working during the Cold War, in order to buttress such arguments. Perhaps the most ubiquitous example of this is the indictment of Abstract Expressionist painting by left-wing art historians since the 1970s. For these thinkers, it is crucial that the style was promoted in international exhibitions organised by bodies at the heart of the US establishment, particularly the United States Information Agency and the International Council at the Museum of Modern Art. They argue that this renders the ‘freedom’ with which Jackson Pollock flicked and poured paint onto his canvases emblematic of the supposed ‘freedom’ of liberal capitalism.

This is a debate in which I have been a partisan. In Rereading Abstract Expressionism, Clement Greenberg and the Cold War (2021), I argue against these art historians on the basis that the art cannot be reduced to the political ends to which it was deployed. In The Aesthetic Cold War, Peter J. Kalliney makes his own case against easy equations between politics and art, focusing instead on the literary output of the decolonizing world.

Sustainable Development Goals10 Reduced inequalities
Middlesex University ThemeCreativity, Culture & Enterprise
PublisherMarx and Philosophy Society
JournalMarx and Philosophy Review of Books
ISSN2042-2016
Publication dates
Online26 Feb 2025
Publication process dates
Accepted2025
Deposited27 Feb 2025
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Copyright Statement

This review is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Material appearing in The Marx and Philosophy Review of Books may be reproduced for non-commercial use provided proper credit is given to the author and The Marx and Philosophy Review of Books. See foot of reviews for licence details.

Web address (URL)https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/21965_the-aesthetic-cold-war-decolonisation-and-global-literature-by-peter-j-kalliney-reviewed-by-daniel-neofetou/
Permalink -

https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/210z59

Restricted files

Publisher's version

  • 20
    total views
  • 0
    total downloads
  • 8
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Notes on two paintings of Jeremy Corbyn
Neofetou, D. 2025. Notes on two paintings of Jeremy Corbyn.
The crisis of experience in the age of algorithmic attention
Neofetou, D. 2025. The crisis of experience in the age of algorithmic attention. London Conference in Critical Thought 2025. London, UK 20 - 21 Jun 2025
Callahan & Witscher
Neofetou, D. 2024. Callahan & Witscher. The Wire.
Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom & Harun Morrison Dono, Somerset House Studios
Neofetou, D. 2024. Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom & Harun Morrison Dono, Somerset House Studios. The Wire.
Anna Kornbluh: Immediacy, or the Style of Too Late Capitalism [Book review]
Neofetou, D. 2024. Anna Kornbluh: Immediacy, or the Style of Too Late Capitalism [Book review]. Britannia Art Publications.
AI, automation and abstraction
Neofetou, D. 2024. AI, automation and abstraction. Association for Art History 2024 Annual Conference. Bristol, UK 03 - 05 Apr 2024
“SENSE: Beuys / Gormley: A conversation through drawing”, Thaddaeus Ropac | London | 37 Dover Street Ely House, January 19, 2023 - March 22, 2023
Neofetou, D. 2023. “SENSE: Beuys / Gormley: A conversation through drawing”, Thaddaeus Ropac | London | 37 Dover Street Ely House, January 19, 2023 - March 22, 2023. Artforum Media.
A restaurant can be art, but can an artwork create community?
Neofetou, D. 2023. A restaurant can be art, but can an artwork create community? Vittles.
Niklas Taleb, Cell Project Space
Neofetou, D. 2023. Niklas Taleb, Cell Project Space. Artforum Media.
Trisha Donnelly, Air de Paris | 43 rue de la Commune de Paris, May 26, 2023 - July 22, 2023
Neofetou, D. 2023. Trisha Donnelly, Air de Paris | 43 rue de la Commune de Paris, May 26, 2023 - July 22, 2023. Artforum Media.
Cracks in the unity of theory and practice: the London Filmmakers Co-op in the 1970s
Neofetou, D. 2023. Cracks in the unity of theory and practice: the London Filmmakers Co-op in the 1970s. Going Nowhere? 1972, or Thereabouts. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK 26 Apr 2023
Repetition and reification in the work of Theodor W. Adorno
Neofetou, D. 2023. Repetition and reification in the work of Theodor W. Adorno. London Conference in Critical Thought 2023. London Metropolitan University, London, UK 30 Jun - 01 Jul 2023
Climate activism and ecological Leninism
Neofetou, D. 2023. Climate activism and ecological Leninism. Historical Materialism Twentieth Annual Conference: The Cost of Life Oppression, Exploitation and Struggle in the Time of Monsters. SOAS, London, UK 09 - 12 Nov 2023
The flesh of negation: Adorno and Merleau-Ponty contra Heidegger
Neofetou, D. 2023. The flesh of negation: Adorno and Merleau-Ponty contra Heidegger. Philosophy and Social Criticism. 49 (7), pp. 798-813. https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537211066852
Lifes, The Hammer Museum
Neofetou, D. 2022. Lifes, The Hammer Museum. The Wire.
Silvia Kolbowski, Kunsthaus Glarus | Im Volksgarten, September 4, 2022 - November 27, 2022
Neofetou, D. 2022. Silvia Kolbowski, Kunsthaus Glarus | Im Volksgarten, September 4, 2022 - November 27, 2022. Artforum Media.
Pavlensky’s grimace of power
Neofetou, D. 2022. Pavlensky’s grimace of power. in: Pavlensky, P. (ed.) Pornopolitics and Other Precedents London, UK MOTHER. pp. 68-71
Medium-specificity as determinate negation: why Greenberg was right in practice but (somewhat) wrong in theory
Neofetou, D. 2022. Medium-specificity as determinate negation: why Greenberg was right in practice but (somewhat) wrong in theory. Association for Art History 2022 Annual Conference. Online 06 - 08 Apr 2022
Max Stirner’s flesh: Eigenheit as aesthetics
Neofetou, D. 2022. Max Stirner’s flesh: Eigenheit as aesthetics. Historical Materialism Nineteenth Annual Conference: Facing the Abyss: An Epoch of Permanent War and Counterrevolution. SOAS, London, UK 10 - 13 Nov 2022
Letter from the Hamptons
Neofetou, D. 2022. Letter from the Hamptons. Britannia Art Publications.
Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation
Neofetou, D. 2022. Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation. Britannia Art Publications.
Boris Groys: Logic of the Collection [Book review]
Neofetou, D. 2021. Boris Groys: Logic of the Collection [Book review]. Britannia Art Publications.
Letter from Mallorca
Neofetou, D. 2021. Letter from Mallorca. Britannia Art Publications.
Rereading abstract expressionism, Clement Greenberg and the Cold War
Neofetou, D. 2021. Rereading abstract expressionism, Clement Greenberg and the Cold War. London, UK Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
Laughing and crying and dancing: the limits of human behavior in Swing Time (1936)
Neofetou, D. 2021. Laughing and crying and dancing: the limits of human behavior in Swing Time (1936). Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 38 (6), pp. 541-558. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2020.1780901
Political art criticism and the need for theory
Neofetou, D. 2021. Political art criticism and the need for theory. Arts. 10 (1). https://doi.org/10.3390/arts10010001
Greenberg's Marxism: Clement Greenberg's unfinished essay draft on Andre Breton's "Political Position of Surrealism" (1935)
Neofetou, D. 2021. Greenberg's Marxism: Clement Greenberg's unfinished essay draft on Andre Breton's "Political Position of Surrealism" (1935). Getty Research Journal. 14 (1), pp. 205-219. https://doi.org/10.1086/716587
Futures of the Contemporary [Book review]
Neofetou, D. 2020. Futures of the Contemporary [Book review]. Britannia Art Publications.
Oppose the Motion
Neofetou, D. 2019. Oppose the Motion. The Wire.
Josephine Berry: Art and (Bare) Life – A Biopolitical Inquiry [Book review]
Neofetou, D. 2019. Josephine Berry: Art and (Bare) Life – A Biopolitical Inquiry [Book review]. Britannia Art Publications.
A world for us: on the prefiguration of reconciliation in Barnett Newman’s painting
Neofetou, D. 2019. A world for us: on the prefiguration of reconciliation in Barnett Newman’s painting. Journal of Contemporary Painting. 5 (1), pp. 147-161. https://doi.org/10.1386/jcp.5.1.147_1
Divine Cargo
Neofetou, D. 2018. Divine Cargo. South London Gallery, London, UK 11 Aug 2018
Spool for love
Neofetou, D. 2018. Spool for love. The Wire.
By the throat
Neofetou, D. 2018. By the throat. The Wire.
Sue Tompkins + Tony Conrad, Film at Tate Britain
Neofetou, D. 2018. Sue Tompkins + Tony Conrad, Film at Tate Britain. The Wire.
Inventory: The Counsel of Spent [Book review]
Neofetou, D. 2018. Inventory: The Counsel of Spent [Book review]. Britannia Art Publications.
Grace Wales Bonner: A Time for New Dreams, Serpentine Galleries / London
Neofetou, D. 2018. Grace Wales Bonner: A Time for New Dreams, Serpentine Galleries / London. Giancarlo Politi Editore.
Art investigation: Forensic Architecture
Neofetou, D. 2018. Art investigation: Forensic Architecture. Britannia Art Publications.
Rise of the Machines
Neofetou, D. 2016. Rise of the Machines. The Wire.
Matt Copson, Serpentine Galleries
Neofetou, D. 2016. Matt Copson, Serpentine Galleries. The Wire.
Dean Blunt, Cubitt
Neofetou, D. 2016. Dean Blunt, Cubitt. The Wire.
Extremely impure ends: Clement Greenberg and United States imperialism
Neofetou, D. 2015. Extremely impure ends: Clement Greenberg and United States imperialism. Association for Art History 2015 Annual Conference. Norwich, UK 09 - 11 Apr 2015
Brief and wholly concrete moments
Neofetou, D. 2015. Brief and wholly concrete moments. Mute Publishing.
Good Day Today: David Lynch destabilises the spectator
Neofetou, D. 2012. Good Day Today: David Lynch destabilises the spectator . Winchester, UK Zer0 Books.