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Bernard Smith’s Early Marxist Art History

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, jobrian{at}interchange.ubc.ca

In a systematic investigation of national art histories, Bernard Smith’s Place, Taste and Tradition: A Study of Australian Art since 1788, first published in 1945, would likely emerge as an Ur-text of the genre. The book’s rewriting of Australian art history within a Marxist tradition of ‘culturalist’ criticism was a major advance on the available models. Its success stems in no small part from its judicious and balanced account of how social forces intersect. The book privileges economic production as a primary force, as does any Marxian text deserving of the name, but no more than it privileges cultural production and reception as primary forces.

Key Words: art history • cultural criticism • Marxism • national identity • painting

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