Michele Dantini on Longhi, Sloterdijk, and the Critique of Ideology

In an article for Artribune Magazine #30, art historian Michele Dantini examines how Roberto Longhi's 1950 essay "Proposte per una critica d'arte" can renew ideology critique, engaging with Peter Sloterdijk's Critique of Cynical Reason. Dantini argues that Longhi's concept of the artwork as a "laceration" (strappo) reveals historical worlds beyond mere communication. Longhi's descriptive method, which prioritizes process over form, offers a way to counter contemporary cynicism and the instrumentalization of art by theory. Dantini connects Longhi's approach to the Zivilisationskritik tradition from Nietzsche to Steiner, and to Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation, Don DeLillo's Mao II, and Carla Lonzi, a student of Longhi. The article critiques theorists like Boris Groys for failing to engage directly with artworks. Dantini teaches contemporary art history at Università del Piemonte Orientale.