Visual Arts

"What do you think an artist is? He’s a political being, constantly alive to heartrending, fiery, or happy events, to which he responds in every way. No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war, for attack and defense against the enemy."

Pablo Picasso

Monday, 22 May 2017 20:15

Banners for Spain

Written by Nick Wright

in Visual Arts

Nick Wright reviews the current exhibition of banners produced by Hammersmith Communist Party in the 1930s, to help the Spanish Republic. Legend has it that while Picasso was living in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, a visiting German officer asked him, upon seeing a photo of the painting Guernica…

Spanish Civil War Marx Memorial Library

Tuesday, 16 May 2017 14:18

Women's Art

Written by PL Henderson

in Visual Arts

PL Henderson introduces the #WOMENSART project, which demonstrates how women have continued to create art, often as radicals, rebels and pioneers, despite the social, cultural and economic restrictions placed upon them. In 1972, Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT created a small manifesto entitled ‘Women’s Art’ in which she highlighted the cultural…

#Womensart VALIE EXPORT Guerilla Girls

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 20 April 2017 09:15

A weapon in the class struggle: American artists and the Communist Party

in Visual Arts

Written by Jane Kallir

Jane Kallir focuses on the relationship of 1930s American artists to the Communist Party. In the 1930s, the Great Depression’s far-reaching economic impact lent credence to the Marxist belief that capitalism was doomed. Membership in the Communist Party U.S.A. (CPUSA) swelled, and artists became increasingly politicized. The near total collapse of…

John Reed Club CPUSA MOMA

Alexander Deineka, Textile Workers, 1927

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 16 March 2017 09:39

Great art, shame about the curating

in Visual Arts

Written by Christine Lindey

Christine Lindey reviews the current Royal Academy exhibition, and recommends the art - but not the didactic, vindictive and reactionary curation. In January 1918 the Russian Soviet Republic was the first state in the world to officially support the avant-garde. Fired by the revolution’s socialist ideology, artists rejected the tsarist regime’s…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 07 March 2017 17:01

Art is a weapon in the battle of ideas

in Visual Arts

Written by Stephanie McMillan

Stephanie McMillan presents an overview and polemic about political art, the relationship of culture and politics, and the need for critical and revolutionary art as part of the cultural dimension of progessive political movements.

El Lissitzsky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 22 February 2017 16:00

October 1917: The Spark For Great Art

in Visual Arts

Written by Christine Lindey

Christine Lindey explains how the 1917 Russian Revolution inspired the transformation of the visual arts into instruments of popular liberation. “In the land of the Soviets every kitchen maid must be able to rule the state,” said Lenin and the arts were an intrinsic part of the Bolshevik revolution’s attempt…

Lissitzky Rodchenko Stepanova Tatlin Lunacharsky Apsit

Books (Please)! In All Branches of Knowledge by Alexander Rodchenko, 1924

Tuesday, 21 February 2017 10:52

All Power to the Ideals!

Written by Mark Perryman

in Visual Arts

What kind of cultural celebration, Mark Perryman asks, do the art and the politics of the Russian Revolution deserve? A century ago, on 23rd February 1917, Russian women workers marched out in protest from the St Petersburg factories to defy Cossacks armed with swords, and took control of the city’s…

Sunday, 19 February 2017 22:23

The world was theirs to win: revolutionary Russian art at the Royal Academy

Written by Phil Brett

in Visual Arts

Phil Brett enjoys the art at the RA exhibition, but not the simplistic and misleading commentary. Remember the fuss over the art of Hans Holbein the Younger because he painted during the time of an autocratic ruler who had a fondness for decapitating his wives? No, of course not, there…

Sunday, 29 January 2017 19:55

Art of Solidarity

Written by Len Phelan

in Visual Arts

Len Phelan reviews the Art of Solidarity. It's hard to think of a more appropriate venue for Art of Solidarity, a marvellous exhibition of Cuban posters supporting the liberation struggle in Africa from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, than the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. The museum promotes awareness…

Saturday, 28 January 2017 16:55

Profit and Loss: a drawing by Owen McGuigan

Written by David Betteridge

in Visual Arts

David Betteridge introduces a drawing from Owen McGuigan which 'takes a line for a walk'; and a song on the same theme of shipbuilding on Clydeside. Watching Owen McGuigan taking photographs is an eyeopener, especially when he is at work among a crowd at a public event. It is like…

Owen McGuigan Clydeside