John Roberts (philosopher)
John Roberts | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Charles Roberts 22 July 1955 |
| Occupations | Philosopher, professor |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Wolverhampton |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Wolverhampton |
| Main interests | Aesthetics |
John Roberts is a British philosopher of art and aesthetics whose work engages with Marxist cultural theory, the avant-garde, and labour in art. He is Professor of Art and Aesthetics at the University of Wolverhampton.[1]
Career
Roberts has written extensively on conceptual art, the avant-garde, and the relationship between art and labour, authoring numerous books published by academic presses including Pluto, Verso, Haymarket, and Brill.[2][3][4] His work has been widely engaged with in debates on aesthetics, critical theory, and cultural politics.[5]
He is Professor of Art and Aesthetics at the University of Wolverhampton, where he leads the *Art, Philosophy and Social Practice* research cluster and has contributed to international academic programmes, including teaching and seminars in Dublin and New York.[6]
Roberts has also delivered public lectures at major venues, including the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, where he discussed Revolutionary Time and the Avant-Garde with philosopher Peter Osborne.[7] He has appeared in academic documentaries, including one on the evolution, and then passing, of conceptual photography and art, produced by Source Photographic Review in 2012.[8]
Selected works
- The Philistine Controversy (co-edited with Dave Beech; Verso, 2002)[9]
- The Art of Interruption: Realism, Photography, and the Everyday (Manchester University Press, 1998)
- Philosophizing the Everyday: Revolutionary Praxis and the Fate of Cultural Theory (Pluto Press, 2006)
- The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art after the Readymade (Verso, 2007)
- The Necessity of Errors (Verso, 2011)
- Photography and Its Violations (Columbia University Press, 2014)
- Revolutionary Time and the Avant-Garde (Verso, 2015)
- Art and Theory After Marx (Haymarket Books, 2019)
- Red Days: Popular Music and the English Counterculture 1965–1975 (Verso, 2020)
- Art and Emancipation (Historical Materialism/Brill, 2023)
- Art, Misuse and Technology: Micheál O’Connell’s ‘System Interference’’ (Artwords Press, 2022)
- ‘Trickster’, Oxford Art Journal 22:1 (1999), pp. 81–101[10]
- ‘Unfitting: Art and Labour from Conceptualisation to AI’, The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics 33:67 (2024), pp. 26–42[11]
Reception
Barry Schwabsky, writing in *Art Journal Open*, called Roberts "one of the more original and independent thinkers among contemporary art historians" in his review of The Necessity of Errors.[12]
In *Radical Philosophy*, Robert Spencer described The Intangibilities of Form as "an important and ambitious book that rewrites the history of twentieth-century art through a concern with work."[5]
References
- ^ "Professor John Roberts". University of Wolverhampton. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ "John Roberts — publications". University of Wolverhampton. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ "John Roberts". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ "John Roberts". Verso Books. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ a b Spencer, Robert. "The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art after the Readymade". Radical Philosophy. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ "Prof John Roberts – Professional activities". University of Wolverhampton. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ "Culture Now: John Roberts and Peter Osborne". Institute of Contemporary Arts. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ "What is Conceptual Photography?". YouTube. Source Photographic Review. 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
- ^ Williams, Hywel (15 November 2002). "The Philistine Controversy by Dave Beech and John Roberts". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ Roberts, John (1999). "Trickster". Oxford Art Journal. 22 (1): 81–101. doi:10.1093/oxartj/22.1.81. JSTOR 1360684. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
- ^ Roberts, John (23 August 2024). "Unfitting: Art and Labour from Conceptualisation to AI". The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics. 33 (67). doi:10.7146/nja.v33i67.148451.
- ^ Schwabsky, Barry (29 April 2013). "Reign of Error". Art Journal Open. Retrieved 5 September 2025.