| Ben Davis | |
| Birth Place: | United States |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Art critic, writer |
Ben A. Davis is an American art critic who is known for his writing on politics, economics, and contemporary art, and for his book 9.5 Theses on Art and Class (2013). In 2022, Haymarket Books published his second book, Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis and Cultural Strategy. Like 9.5 Theses on Art and Class, Art in the After-Culture is a collection of his cultural essays.[1]
Davis was executive editor of the art news website Artinfo from 2010 to 2013, and before that associate editor of Artnet Magazine from 2005 to 2010. He is currently the National Art Critic for the art news website Artnet News.[2]
As an independent writer, his work about art has appeared widely in publications including Adbusters, Frieze, New York, Slate, and The Village Voice.[3]
Davis was one of the editors of The Elements of Architecture, the catalogue for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Rem Koolhaas.[4]
In 2015, The New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl has referred to Davis as “among the excellent younger critics now.” [5]
In 2009, Davis wrote the pamphlet 9.5 Theses on Art and Class as an intervention into the art show titled
at Winkleman Gallery in New York City, which set out to explore how artistic success is determined by economics. The discussion generated by the pamphlet drew notice in The New York Times,[6] and was “one of the most talked about sessions” of the #class show, according to Sarah Thornton.[7] 9.5 Theses on Art and Class was later translated into Spanish and Romanian.[8]
9.5 Theses on Art and Class, a collection of Davis’s essays including the title pamphlet, was published by Haymarket Books in 2013.[9] Upon its publication, 9.5 Theses on Art and Class received positive notice in both the mainstream and art press. The Stranger concluded its review by saying, “We should hold town hall meetings on this book.” [10] The Village Voice faulted Davis for “too readily” using Marxism as an explanatory model, but concluded, “On 9.5 Theses, the verdict is crystal: This is one helluva pamphlet.” [11] 9.5 Theses on Art and Class was featured in New York magazine’s “Approval Matrix” on July 13, 2013, which called it a “riveting manifesto.” [12]
The book has been credited with “[bringing] the discussion of class, artists, and the art market center stage in a way that [goes] beyond fleeting auction reports and perpetual gallery gripes.” [13]
Published by Haymarket Books in 2022 "Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis and Cultural Strategy" was listed on several "best books of 2022" sites. Holland Cotter, Chief Art Critic at the New York Times included it on his list, saying "When future art historians seek perspectives on our era of billion dollar auctions, carbon-footprint art fairs, and market driven diversity, this collection of essays by the American critic Ben Davis is a text they'll consult.... He writes with the coolness of a sociologist, the passion of someone with a horse in the race and the smarts to avoid both cheerleading and snootiness."[14] Lisa Hinton put it on her 2022 list of best books for the London Times Literary Supplement, praising the writing as "... glistening, passionate yet coolly precise.... Brilliant, revelatory, urgent."