Artwash ─ Big Oil and the Arts

Cultural institutions make choices. This is the central argument of Artwash, a book which explores the relationship between the funding and production of the arts in Britain, with particular focus on the role of Big Oil companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell.

Reflecting on the current discussion of the role and function of art galleries, Artwash considers how the association with Big Oil might impede these institutions in their cultural endeavors. Stepping outside of the gallery space, Mel Evans discusses how narratives around corporate sponsorship of the arts blur the issue and obscure the strategies of oil company PR executives to maintain brand and public image via cultural philanthropy. In its conclusion the book sounds a note of hope by describing the methods used by artists to challenge the ethics of the contemporary art galleries and examining the possibility of how cultural institutions might change.

Artwash is an important and timely contribution to the study of culture in modern Britain. It is sure to find a wide readership both among students of cultural studies and among practitioners and patrons of the arts.