ABSTRACT
In this chapter I look into the life and art of May Stevens, an American working-class artist, feminist and committed political activist. I am particularly interested in how Stevens's artwork is inextricably interwoven with her politics, constituting as I will argue an assemblage of artpolitics. The discussion draws on Jacques Rancière's analyses of the politics of aesthetics and particularly his notion of ‘the distribution of the sensible’ and will unfold in three sections: first I sketch Steven's pen portrait 1 as an artist, highlighting some events in her life and work, then I present, explicate and discuss Rancière's approach to the politics of aesthetics and examine how it can illuminate an understanding and appreciation of Stevens's art and finally I put forward the notion of artpolitics as a theoretical suggestion of entanglements that goes beyond Rancière's analyses.
