Images of Class: Operaismo, Autonomia and the Visual Arts (1962-1988)

“The 1970s in Italy were a decade of social conflicts and intense cultural and aesthetic innovation, but only now, thanks to the Galimberti’s book we can have a glimpse of the visual dimension of the movement of Autonomia and of the cultural field that is generally known as “operaismo”.” Franco "Bifo" Berardi

“Masterful in sweep and molecular in detail, Jacopo Galimberti’s volume draws upon thorough archival work and a nuanced understanding of Italy’s post-war extraparliamentary left. As the book’s incisive case studies reveal, the period’s proliferating images of class were matched by an assault upon established classes of imagery. The defiance of capitalist wage relations found an equivalent not merely in the iconography of social contestation, but new formats and forums, new means of circulation and dissemination, from architectural interventions to graphic novels to ephemera which refused institutionalization. Galimberti shows us a time and place when the collective “class vernacular” of operaismo and autonomia had not yet ceded to something else. We can still rail against that something else, in Italy and elsewhere: urban gentrification, critical grandstanding, a bloated art market, the aesthetic apotheosis of the individual. But this book helps us remember what came first and what might, one day, come again.” Ara H Merjian, New York University

“Rich in innovative insights, Images of Class proposes a fresh approach to a tumultuous historical period that generated original political theories and social movements. This inspiring and beautiful volume is a must-read.” Leopoldina Fortunati, author of The Arcane of Reproduction