In an increasingly polarized world, Social Forms surveys those artists at the forefront of political resistance

In Social Forms: A Short History of Political Art, renowned critic, curator and writer Christian Viveros-Fauné has picked 50 representative artworks--from Francisco de Goya's The Disasters of War (1810-20) to David Hammons' In the Hood (1993)--that give voice to some of modern art's strongest calls to political action.

In accessible and witty entries on each piece, Viveros-Fauné paints a picture of the context in which each work was created, the artist's background and the historical impact of each contribution. Sometimes artists create projects that subvert existing power structures; sometimes they make artwork so powerful it challenges the very fabric of society. Whether it is Picasso's Guernica and its place at the 1937 World's Fair, or Jenny Holzer's Truisms (1977-79), which still stop us in our tracks, this book tells the story behind some of the most important and unexpected encounters between artworks and the real worlds they engage with.

Never professing to be a definitive history of political art, Social Forms delivers a unique and compelling portrait of how artists during the last 150 years have dealt with changing political systems, the violence of modern warfare, the rise of consumer culture worldwide, the prevalence of inequality and racism, and the challenges of technology.

Christian Viveros-Fauné is a New York-based writer and curator, ex-art dealer and ex-art fair director. He was awarded a Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Grant in 2010, was named critic in residence at the Bronx Museum in 2011 and has been a lecturer at Yale University, Pratt University and Holland's Gerrit Rietveld Academie. He is a regular writer for the Village Voice, ArtReview and Sotheby's' in other words, and has organized gallery and museum exhibitions around the world.