Page 22 - Studio Interantional - May 1967

The return of ingenuity) had a spine-chilling evocation of
Nazism in the `Engagierte Kunst' exhibition,
involved art Braune Kollonen—a surge of jerkin-clad
figures, carrying streaming banners embla-
zoned with formalized curved swastikas, ad-
vancing on a medieval fortress. They press
their way across a wooden causeway. The
time is night. Braune Kollonen is a tinted draw-
ing of 1933—a dangerous year.
Kokoschka's lonely philosophy—his graphics
are particularly immediate in calls upon con-
science (the caricatures of Mussolini and
storm-troopers, unpopular when he painted
them, are historic documents) —is evidence of
Sheldon Williams a fine artist at the height of his powers.
Picasso, famous for Guernica, also drew Dreams
and Lies of Franco and painted his own scathing
comments on the Korean war. At Vienna
For over 100 years, the idea that painters and there were two versions of his War and Peace
sculptors play a more significant role than (the tank has the face of a decorated skull).
butterflies has been intellectually taboo. A His Communism has been widely scouted as
thinking, articulate artist was to many a contra- a permissible quirk, but this did not prevent
diction in terms. In the visual arts, the workers the old man from getting into trouble for his
were expected to have the minds of noble memorial portrait of Stalin, nor for designing
savages or, if they did have an idea in their the cover for Marcos Ana's poems (smuggled
heads, such thoughts had to be directly out of a Spanish prison for publication in
related to their craft. Only very recently has a South America). Andre Masson has reacted
full-scale revolt against this form of intellec- against Franco (Ii Tercio in Sevilla 1936) and,
tual disenfranchisement got going. as late as 1960, produced Algerian Prisoners in
It reached a high water mark last year with St Paul's Camp—fierce denunciatory works,
the enormous graphics exhibition `Engagierte ideally suited to Masson's incisive pen. In
Kunst — Gesellschaftskritische Grafik seit Il Tercio, the Caudillo wears his tasselled
Goya', a part of the Vienna Festival ( cap and smokes a cigar (emotive symbol !).
Franzö-sischer Saal des Künstlerhauses) : 482 works, His face is a mixture of gasmask and cow.
including some anonymous posters, covered a One hand holds a stained short sword. The
period of about 220 years. The exhibition was other offers a bleeding rose. Hardly a for bleu
subsequently shown in Graz, Alpbach and interpretation.
Linz. Leaving aside obvious political and Masson was deeply concerned in the sur-
pacifist propaganda pieces, a sufficiently hard realist movement, which occasionally made
-core of bona-fide art made the collection far sorties into politics. The dream provides an
more serious than a mere demonstration (or alibi—however transparent—for statements
excuse to find an excuse to hold an exhibi- authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes
tion). Sixteen examples from Goya's Capricios might construe as treason or worse. More
need no extra word, but the less well-known direct attacks upon an imperfect establish-
early examples of Schadow and Travies de ment can make life impossible for the artist, as
Villers point up the intensely-felt involvement Georg Grosz discovered at the hands of the
by artists not only in Goya's day but fifty and Weimar Republic. While surrealists entangled
100 years later. There was also a full-blooded and disentangled themselves with the social
group of lithographs by 'Grandville' (Gerard) problem in France; artists in Britain joined
whose titles are self-explanatory: The Great the Artists' International Alliance. Polite eye-
Crusade against Freedom and To you, you who sit brows were raised. Were artists meddling in
behind the Castle and the Law. These are a long affairs that were none of their business? No-
way away from the current off-beat enthusiasm body had the chance to find out. Within two
for Grandville's proto-surrealist engravings. years came the Munich agreement, and mili-
They show only too clearly how an artist of tants in the A.I.A. were already looking for
his standing (and taste) was prepared to enter wartime salients long before Hitler marched
social controversy with the best weapons at into Poland.
his disposal. Since 1950 it has become increasingly diffi-
With increased activity in gravure work, cult to pin a provincial label on painters and
numerous others followed his example. sculptors. Pop, op, and kinetic have become
Felicien Rops, for instance, was not tied to general. Parallel with these current trends
saucy subjects like Le quatrième verre de cognac— there has been a resurgence of involved art.
premier amour. His contribution to the exhibi- André Verlon, one of the organizers of the
tion included Laughable Politics, The Medals of • `Engagierte Kunst' exhibition, has even in-
Waterloo and The Worst Depravity. A sober- augurated a loose federation of international
sided Rops, in .no way reduced by serious artists dedicated to bringing back socially-
intention. meaningful subjects into art—IMAGO, foun-
Kubin (by no means short of intellectual ded at the beginning of the 1960s by Verlon
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