Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical Materialism: Aspects of British Sculpture Since the 1960s, conceived by Karsten Schubert, is a bold, subtle and imaginative intervention into this complex subject, reconsidering its terrain through a small selection of artists and objects. In doing so, it focuses on objects more than contexts, on the art work not the art school. The title has two parts.

The first part: Dialectical Materialism, a much debated term drawn from Hegel and Marxist political philosophy, is deployed here to point to the dynamic and generative forces of opposition and reaction that have charged and driven the making of much sculpture in Britain since the post-war years. In the essay that follows, Jonathan Vernon looks into the potential of this concept in relation to the developing treatment of material, space and object-hood found in British sculpture since 1960. The second part: Aspects of British Sculpture, is drawn from Herbert Read's introduction to the catalogue of British Pavilion for the XXVI Venice Biennale in 1952.