“Marxism: Provides an analysis exposing the social relations that operate in the production of material goods. Marxist art critiques demystify the relationship between artists and patrons, demonstrating who supports whom and why. By exposing the market forces weighing on artists, such an analysis demonstrates how both aesthetic and monetary value may be ascribed to artworks (see commodification). As a political ideology, it has influenced the modern muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco as social realists. Recently, Hans Haacke has created Marxist artworks exposing pervasive corporate sponsorship in the art world.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
