Against Morality (Critics' Essay Series)

Should art be determined by political ideals? In recent decades art institutions have sought to embody liberal values of universal equality and social justice. This move toward greater inclusivity has borne witness to a countervailing trend: artworks are increasingly scrutinized for their political implications, and artists must take care not to transgress particular moral fault lines. Examining contemporary exhibitions as well as works of art and film, and the broader cultural reactions to them, Rosanna McLaughlin investigates the consequences of this moralizing approach to creative work. She invites us to rethink the connection between political values and art―and to ask whether a relationship between them should exist at all. In arguing against morality in the arts, McLaughlin lays the groundwork for a more expansive concept of difference in twenty-first-century art making.

Rosanna McLaughlin is a writer based in East Sussex. She is the author of two books, Double-Tracking: Studies in Duplicity (Carcanet, 2019), a collection of satirical essays and short fiction, and Sinkhole (Montez Press, 2023), her first novel. Her cultural criticism has appeared in ArtReview, Frieze, Granta and the Guardian, among other places. Between 2021 and 2023 she was co-editor of The White Review.