Deskilling in art and the problem of ideology

Abstract

Debates on deskilling in art are scrutinised through a narrow theory of ideology derived exclusively from Karl Marx’s and Friedrich’s Engel’s The German Ideology. This close reading puts a strong emphasis on the critical value of interpreting ideas through an analysis of the social relations that give rise to them. This provides a model for rethinking the idea of deskilling in art not through an examination of the concrete labour of artists but through a reconstruction of the social division of labour in which skill is displaced from the artist to various other workers.