This book investigates the pictorial figurations, aesthetic styles and visual tactics through which visual art and popular culture attempt to appeal to "all of us". One key figure these practices bring into play-the "everybody" (which stands for "all of us" and is sometimes a "new man" or a "new woman")-is discussed in an interdisciplinary way involving scholars from several European countries. A key aspect is how popularisation and communication practices-which can assume populist forms-operate in contemporary democracies and where their genealogies lie. A second focus is on the ambivalences of attraction, i.e. on the ways in which visual creations can evoke desire as well as hatred.
"All chapters of the book amount to an impression of a surprisingly consistent sum of articulations, which do provide new insights into the book's enormously challenging subject matter. Therefore, the book sets up a new benchmark of dealing with the urgently needed sharpening of knowledge and understanding of its topics and problems."
--Visual Studies
--Visual Studies