Theory of the Rearguard

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Cuban art critic and curator Iván de la Nuez returns with an ironic epitaph for contemporary art. Art criticism that examines contemporary art in the 21st century in relationship to politics, iconography, and literature. “Iván de la Nuez transforms art criticism into an art form.” — Letras Libres Theory of the Rearguard examines how contemporary art is in tension with survival, rather than in relation to life. In the twentieth century, Peter Bürger’s Theory of the Avant-Garde was a cult book focused on the two main tasks that art demanded at the time: to break its representation and to destroy the barrier that separated it from life. Forty years later, The Theory of the Rearguard is an ironic manifesto about contemporary art and its failures, even though Iván de la Nuez does not waste his time mourning it or disguising it. He argues that our times are not characterized by