Art and Power. The connections between the two have come to preoccupy political historians and art historians alike in the last few years. 'Culture and society', the slogan of the 1960s, has been almost effaced - for better or worse, or for both - by 'the politics of culture'. Political historians are coming to take paintings, poems and buildings more seriously as part of their evidence, while art historians are increasingly concerned with replacing the artifacts they study in their political settings.

LRB 22 January 1987 | PDF Download