Stefan Jonsson uses three monumental works of art to build a
provocative history of popular revolt: Jacques-Louis David's "The
Tennis Court Oath" (1791), James Ensor's "Christ's Entry into
Brussels in 1889" (1888), and Alfredo Jaar's "They Loved It So
Much, the Revolution" (1989). Addressing, respectively, the French
Revolution of 1789, Belgium's proletarian messianism in the 1880s,
and the worldwide rebellions and revolutions of 1968, these
canonical images not only depict an alternative view of history but
offer a new understanding of the relationship between art and
politics and the revolutionary nature of true democracy.
Drawing on examples from literature, politics, philosophy, and
other works of art, Jonsson carefully constructs his portrait,
revealing surprising parallels between the political representation
of "the people" in government and their aesthetic representation in
painting. Both essentially "frame" the people, Jonsson argues,
defining them as elites or masses, responsible citizens or angry
mobs. Yet in the aesthetic fantasies of David, Ensor, and Jaar,
Jonsson finds a different understanding of democracy-one in which
human collectives break the frame and enter the picture.
Connecting the achievements and failures of past revolutions to
current political issues, Jonsson then situates our present moment
in a long historical drama of popular unrest, making his book both
a cultural history and a contemporary discussion about the fate of
democracy in our globalized world.
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