Introduction

The introduction sets out the rough coordinates of art’s entanglements with labour: historically, conceptually, and formally. From here the discussion proceeds to this study’s year zero, modernism, outlining its two opposed responses to work, appropriation, and disavowal—finally explaining both as mystifications of actually existing labour. After some reflections on how Marx and Henri Lefevbre might help us frame such simplifications, I outline the subject of the monograph, defining its central terms, most of all work itself, before outlining the dynamics at play in the ten chapters that follow.