The modern self-conception of art includes questioning giving bodies of knowledge and traditions. Today art is frequently practiced in conformist confirmation of the neoliberal zeitgeist, particularly when it denies its own radicality. What is Contemporary Art? is the attempt to conceptualize the relationship between art and politics for our time.

Alexander Garcia Düttmann’s essay both theoretically apprehends the radicality of contemporary art and shows how it serves to strengthen today’s political ideology: an ideology that frustrates real social change. The book addresses the heart of contemporary political-aesthetic debate.