ABSTRACT
Underlying the conflict between October and the New Criterion were opposing political attitudes toward capitalist society, the one critical, the other supportive. Few recognized artists on the political right introduced social concerns into art, Gilbert & George stand out as exceptions. In contrast a considerable number on the left made political art whose targets were the art world, capitalism, and the mass media that was so vital to its functioning. Artists had been among the first to call attention to and attempt to define the consumer society. In the 1960s an international group of Marxist bohemians, called the situationists, targeted the new stage of capitalism. Art always ended up being assimilated into the "spectacle," transformed into a commodity. Growing numbers of artists began to deconstruct consumerism and the mass media and their relation to art and the art world. A major problem that deconstruction artists faced was how best to get their messages across to the public.
