Surrealists, Stalinists, and Trotskyists: Theories of Art and Revolution in France between the Wars Author(s): Helena Lewis

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 52, No. 1, Political Journals and Art, 1910-40 (Spring, 1993), pp. 6168 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777303 . Accessed: 30/04/2011 20:24
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=caa. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

Surrealists, Stalinists, and Trotsk yists

HelenaLewis

Theories of Artand Revolution in France betweenthe Wars

ideologicallydiverseresponsesto the left-wingdebateon the relationship between art and politics. The two Surrealist was understoodthat the artist would participatein journalsdemonstrate a progression of thoughtfroma virtually the political life of the day. Onthe Left, it waswidelybelieved total disregard for politics to an espousal of Marxism, as that, while a workneed notbe overtlypolitical, therecouldbe shownby the decision of the leading Surrealiststojoin, albeit no such thing as "artforart'ssake," because, as Communist briefly, the French CommunistParty. The pacifist journal intellectual Louis Aragon declared, "apoliticalworks are Clarte initially collaboratedwith the Surrealists but soon really militant works for the benefit of the bourgeoisie in repudiatedthem in favorof closer ties with the FrenchCompower."'Frenchartists of the most disparatetendenciesea- munist Party, eventually becoming a publication of the the truthof Stalin'sflatteringdictumthat TrotskyistFourth International.Communeexemplified the gerlyacknowledged artists and writers "are the engineers of the soul."'2 The position of the FrenchCommunist Partyon questionsof art, was gratifyingbecause it meant that artists which, in practice, meantstrugglingto workout the implicapronouncement would no longer be consideredmarginalfigures, as they so tions of socialist realism. Froman ideologicalpoint of view, often felt themselves to be in bourgeois society. On the the most original of the journals was C16,foundedby Leon contrary,they could now play a vital role in bringingabout Trotsky,Diego Rivera, and Andre Breton. A publicationof the revolution. the F6deration Internationale de l'ArtRevolutionnaire Ind&Such a definition of the role of the artist created an pendant(International Federation of Independent Revolutionunforeseenproblem,however, because if it weretrue that art ary Art), or FIARI, a PopularFrontorganization of artists, it could influence consciousness, then it followedthat art was sought to unite the anti-Stalinist Left, calling for a new far too importantto be allowed complete license. By the revolutionary aestheticthatwouldpreservethe freedomof the was in mid-1930s, the FrenchCommunist artist. Party attempting, the name of socialist realism, to dictate form as well as La Rdvolution surrialiste, published irregularlyfrom content to those artists who were Party members. By the 1924 to 1929, was never intended to be an art journal, resolutions of the CommunistInternationalof 1932, aug- althoughit was profuselyillustratedwith images fromall the mentedby the Kharkov theses of the SovietWriters Congress modernistschools in additionto Surrealism.Amongits most of 1934, the methodof socialist realismwas defined. It was to significanttexts wereartists'accountsof theirdreamsin both be a historically truthful and concrete depiction of reality visual and writtenform. Fundamentally, artists who contribwitha thematicemphasison the comingof the revolution. The uted to the magazinewere opposed to art in the usual sense, most immediate task was the Communisteducationof the that is, they maintained the attitudeof total revolt against masses; it was vital, therefore,that the artist be made aware tradition and orthodoxy that stemmed from Surrealism's of his obligations to the proletariat.These concepts were Dadaist past. In a deliberateattemptto emulatethe serious continuouslydebated by Frenchleft-wingwritersand artists presentationof a scientific journal, the layout of the cover in the 1920s and 1930s in a vain effortto resolvethe inherent combined the austere lettering of the title with a small contradictions between the desire to upholdartistic freedom circular collage of textually contrastingmaterials, an emand the need to direct art into revolutionary channels. blem that alluded to Dadaist chance-inducedmethodology The five journalsto be discussed, La Rdvolution surrd- (pl. 8, p. 16). Given the fact that the Surrealists'goal was aliste [The Surrealistrevolution] (1924-29), Le Surrialisme nothing less than a revolutionin consciousness, the editors au servicede la rdvolution [Surrealismin the service of the and contributorshad no wish to be regarded merely as a revolution] (1930-33), Clartd[Clarity] (1919-23), Commune frivolousband of artists and poets. The quasi-scientific, objectivenatureof the Surrealist [Commune] (1933-39),3 and C1 [Key](1938-39), represent
ART JOURNAL

Revolution, was After takenforgrantedthatart had a social content,and it

World WarI and the Russian

it

61

310

1112

15

17

19

20

21

22

U3

24

25

26

27

28

289 30

31

32

33

U5

35

36

37 38

39

40

41

Q2

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

61

62

53

M5

5')

I ~6 57

58

1719 60o 61

62C' (1

65

(,r6? C

C 6

69

70

71

72
FIG. 1 Artist unknown, Les Entrdesdes

77 74

75

76

77

78

73

83

81

82

63

&

62

serrures.-Ne pas confondre [Key holes.-Do not confuse]LaRdvolution Surrealist [The revolution], surrdaliste no. 8 (December 1, 1926):1.

movementwas evident in the establishmentof a "Bureauof Surrealist Research," where examples of dreams, strange coincidences, and bizarre happenings were collected. According to Breton, leader and chief theoretician, the movement was not concerned with aesthetics but only with the search for the "marvelous," that future point of resolution where the two opposing states of dream and reality would merge.The Surrealistswere determinedto introducea whole new way of seeing the world. As an example, they transformed a page from a hardwarecatalogue into an abstract compositionsimply by giving it a captionand puttingit into a new context (fig. 1). Furthermore forthe and most important Left, the Surrealists asserted that talentwas irrelevant,that the artist was a mere "copyingmachine," and that anyone could be an artist4-a position that would appear to fit admirablywith the call for proletarianart. As defined by the Surrealists, art literally had the power to change the world, and many artists' works were illustrated in La Rdvolution surrdaliste.In addition to Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Andre Masson, and Yves Tanguy, other modernists, such as Giorgiode Chirico, Paul Klee, and Pablo Picasso, were represented, along with the graphic efforts of those writerswho tried their hand at collage. The Surrealistswere determinedto destroytraditionalculture by ridicule if notby violence. In the hope of provokingthe anger of the public, to the Pope," they published such manifestosas the "Address insulting the Catholic church, a "Letterto the Heads of Insane Asylums" demandingfreedom for mental patients, and an ultimatumto the Frenchgovernment calling for it to "Disband the Army and Open the Gates of Prisons."The Surrealists'hatredof warand nationalism,theiranticlericalism and contempt for traditionalvalues culminated in Un
SPRING 1993

Cadavre [A corpse], a pamphlet protesting the national mourningfor the popularwriterAnatole France, symbol of Frenchculture. In a seminal text, "Le Surr6alismeet la peinture" [Surrealismand painting], which appearedin the July 1925 issue of La Rdvolution surrdaliste,Bretonasserted that the Surrealistswere in the vanguardof the struggleforthe total liberationof mankind, because they believed that "to bring about the absolute revision necessary in real values, the artist must concern himself solely with an internal[psychological] model."5Hence, with perfect consistency, Surrealism embracedthe object-oriented paintings of Ernstor Dali and the nonobjective work of Miro or Arp, despite their incompatiblestyles, because in both the unconsciousof the painterentereddirectly into a dialoguewith the unconscious of the viewer. Gradually, the Surrealists acquired political consciousness. They became cognizant of the meaning of the Russian Revolution,and they began to be awarethatmostof the people workingfor peace and strugglingagainst imperialism were Marxists.In the October1925 issue of La Rdvolution surrialiste, this new consciousnesswas expressed in a rare statementby a visual artist. Massonwrote:"I believe that everymanwhowantsrevolution. . . is necessarilyled to considerthat the only socially valuableupheavalin ourtime is the dictatorship of the proletariat as Marxconceivedit and as Lenin realized it."6His sentimentsare clear evidenceof the influenceof the editorsandwritersof the Marxist periodical Clartd, with whom the Surrealists became acquainted because they were the only othergroupto attackthe memory of the widely reveredAnatole France. Published from 1919 to 1928, Clartdwas a left-wing journalthatunderwent manyideologicalchanges. Originally,

it was the organof the internationalassociation of the same name foundedby HenriBarbusse, an antiwarwriterwho had risked court-martialby publishing his bitter novel Le Feu (translated in English as UnderFire) in 1916. Both the of and its journal sought to be an "international organization the mind" led by the foremostintellectuals of the day, who were to use their influence to pressure their respective governmentsto keep the peace. Duringthese early years, Clarte had a vaguely socialistic, humanistic, and pacifist outlook. However, by 1924, Barbusse had left the editorialboardand a group of young Marxists, including Jean Bernier, Victor took overthe journal. ReflectCrastre,and MarcelFourrier, ing this new sectarian leadership, Clartdpublished articles on the economy, fascism and the rise of Mussolini, and the inequities of the Treatyof Versailles, as well as occasional articles on art and literature.Underits new Marxisteditors, Clartdwas aligned with the CommunistParty,althoughthe publicationneverbecame a FrenchCommunistPartyorgan. and the Between the years 1925 and 1927, Clartdistes Surrealistsjoined forcesin their struggleagainstwar,nationalism, and capitalism. In 1925, appalledby the outbreakof a new colonial war in which France ruthlessly quelled a national independence movementin Morocco, they issued a joint manifesto, "La Rdvolutiond'abord et toujours"[The revolutionfirst and forever].Publishedin both ClartdandLe Surrialismeau servicede la revolution, it attackedthe French for and government imperialist aggression praised Lenin for the "magnificentexample of immediate disarmament. . This manifesto given to the world . . . at Brest-Litovsk."'7 markedthe overtpoliticization of the Surrealistsandinitiated a close, if brief, association with the Clartdistes.Bernier, then chief editor of Clarted, described the commonprogram they had tentativelyagreed upon:

intellectuals(practicallyall of themare). Eventually,we will sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of the cultivatedbourwillfurther geoisie... which,however slightly and indirectly, the progressof the revolutionary idea."

For a time, the two groups emphasized what they had in common, such as their contemptfor bourgeois culture and The Surrealists,withtheir theirhatredof the warin Morocco. in aroused interest radical newly politics, eagerly absorbed used their Marxistdoctrine. At the same time, the Clartdistes influence with the FrenchCommunistPartyto gain its apto proval of Surrealism by giving a Marxist interpretation both The editors of did. the Surrealists practicallyeverything reviews even planned to publish a joint journalto be called "La Guerrecivile" [Civil war], but this never materialized because the two groups really had no programbeyond a desire to underminecapitalist cultural hegemony.By 1927, in apparentresponse to pressurefromthe Party,the editors of Clarte decided to break with the Surrealists and to turn Clart6into a "realarmof the workingclass."9Subsequently, Clarteunderwent yet anotherideologicalrevision, adoptinga Trotskyist positionunderthe title La Luttedes classes [Class struggle]. It is interestingthat, even during this period of close collaborationwhen Aragon, Breton, Paul Eluard, Robert Desnos, and other Surrealists often published articles in Clartd, its illustrationsshowed no hint of Surrealist influence. The artists whose works appeared regularly in its pages wereFrenchCommunist Partymemberssuchas Andrd A. Lh6te, Jean Lur;at, Albert Gleizes, and others, much less well known, such as Lebedoff,Edy Legrad, MelaMuter,and Jean Marchand.Occasionally, worksof Picasso's classical period were shown, and several articles on George Grosz denunciation bourWe of his satirical drawings. But of proposeto undertakethe systematic appeared with reproductions taste in art seems to have inclined heavilyto geois thought that, for many reasons,the FrenchCommunist the Clartdistes' Party cannot undertake. ... Wewill have a dual purpose:to overly sentimental woodcuts of mother and child and to ruin of proletariansubjects that fitted perfectly into the mold of demonstrate to ourproletarianreadersthe ignominious what is pompouslycalled Frenchthought and to exposethe socialist realism as it was later defined (fig. 2). Surinsidious influence of the writings of counter-revolutionary Once radicalized, several of the moreprominent
N:_

63

ROMMMINNIN

"IN

X7?

PREN
71 ,

11

A, ,01, d al W or r, 'o o om W, M, .0 so leW 03\ 4P A\W,0,W, .0, V,rW, gp, p, gp J0

e"I,

al

-E

4,

4 gx\oW \\m\w., F,W, 0 ggggPow ?,Ilw\ Id Ms W, Mr F?, W, wv m IF a om

.

aWiel M\\, W', Z,

*pow 07

0s,

I N\, N q ?,F ?v I

kit

\Ilk

too

N V-A
As

sp, AL,
4 11 f 1" N

let

m
G. 2 Artistunknown, 15, 1922):167. FI untitled,ClartM [Clarity] (February

ART JOURNAL

64

Le Surrnalismeau servicede la rdvolution did adopta new direction by publishing more left-wing articles and L manifestosalongwith Surrealistpoems, accountsof dreams, games, and automatic texts. A number of stills from the d'or [The golden SalvadorDali and Luis Bufiuelfilm EA4ge in issue the first age] appeared (fig. 3), arousingtremendous because of the film's violently anticlerical, controversy erotic, and irrationalnature. When several Surrealistswere physically attackedand some of their paintingsdestroyedby fascist gangs and whenL4ge d'orwas bannedby the authorities, the groupproudlyclaimed that these eventsestablished their revolutionary credentials.The Partyrespondedto these incidents with limited and cautiousapproval.One article in Partynews[Humanity],the FrenchCommunist L'Humanite for the is a film stated that d'or not paper, "LAge proletariat, but one may affirmthat-if I dare to say so-it serves the artirevolutionary purposes of the workingclass."10 Another cle condemned the wanton destruction of the paintings, praised the workof Ernst and Miro, and singled out Dali's paintings in particular as being "extremelytouching and troubling,"illuminating "the conflict between human conscience and society, emphasizingthe attitudeof revoltthat must result fromthis in our bourgeoissociety."" However,the Surrealists never enjoyed the trust and confidenceof the FrenchCommunist Party,whichwas always The of their commitment. skeptical Party condemnedtheir as much as scandalous art with its lack of their discipline Daliand FIG. 3 StillfromL'Age d'or[Thegolden age] (1930),film by Salvador in the LuisBufiuel,LeSurr6alisme au servicede la revolution dream symbols and blatant sexuality. Yet Breton stoutly [Surrealism serviceof the revolution] (October 1930):49. of insisted that even if Surrealistart floutedeveryconvention He socialist realism, it was neverthelesstrulyrevolutionary. realists, including Breton, actually joined the FrenchCom- described being called upon over and over to justify the munist Party, an action that committedthe whole group to contentof Le Surrialisme au servicede la revolution beforea All to of officials: "fellow travelers." were committee support expected Party becoming French CommunistParty positions, and any who objected It resembled nothingso much... as apolice interrogation.... were summarilyexpelled. The harmonious relationshipwith Whatmade them weresomeof the literally besidethemselves the Partythat the Surrealistshopedforwas demonstrated by . . . . . . the works of Picasso. Faced especially surrialiste and to illustrations their decision to abandonLa Rdvolution with these, they wouldvie with each otherto see who couldbe Published launch Le Surrnalismeau servicede la revolution. the most sarcastic: How was one supposedto regard this? from 1930 to 1933, the new journal was moreovertlypolitiDid I thinkI had CouldI tell them what this "represented"? cal, as is clear fromthe title and cover.Amendingthe central Did I consider timeto wasteon suchpetit-bourgeoisnonsense? motifof the earlier publication,the newjournalreplacedthe etc this compatible with the revolution?)12 formercollage motifwith an emblemhaving a doublemeaning (pl. 9, p. 17). A hieroglyphdrawnfromancientalchemyto Eventually Breton's explanations were accepted, but a new symbolize the universal key of knowledge,the new emblem commission would soon convene and again he would be reflected the Surrealists' increasing interest in pseudo- called before it. It was only a question of time before the final sciences such as alchemy and astrology. However,to those rupture. In 1931, Aragon, formerly Breton's "second in comignorantof alchemical symbols, the emblem also could be mand," broke with him to become the foremost intellectual of read as a Communisthammerand sickle. Hence, the jour- the French Communist Party and others soon followed suit. nal's new logo served a dual function:it assertedthe Surreal- After the December 1931 issue of Le Surrialisme au service de ists' use of iconoclastic methods while at the same time it la rdvolution, the Party demanded that the Surrealists repudiunited them with the Party. The choice of an alchemical ate Dali because his work was so pornographic. His paintsymbol was certainly not intended as an act of rebellion or ing, Le Grand Mastibateur (The great masturbator), which provocation,since at this stage the Surrealistswantednoth- appeared in the November 1931 issue, had caused great consternation. But even worse, he then published the shocking morethan the good opinionof the Communists.
El

I INw.
MIN IE

M.-IF

ism,

AN.

SPRING 1993

[Dream],which described the ingly explicit essay "Reverie" in frontof a little sexual fantasies he had while masturbating of bourgeois in "You offical said stink One girl. disgust: Party refused to disavow Dali; ironrottenness!"13 Breton,however, ically, he was to be forcedout of the groupforcrass commercialism years later.The Surrealistswerebecomingmoreand more politically isolated, although they never stopped to join. After 1933, they searching for a political movement no longereven had theirownjournal;theysimplycontributed to a varietyof publications,most oftenMinotaure [Minotaur] a art review. (1933-39), glossy was a monthlypublishedfrom1933 until the Commune WarII. It was a culturaljournalthatwas beginning of World Associationdes Ecrivainset des the organof the Communist Artistes Revolutionnaires (Association of Revolutionary Writersand Artists), or AEAR. As the name implies, it was intended as a journal of all the arts, and it occasionally published articles on architecture, films, exhibitions, and concerts, as well as many book reviews. But, oddly, other than a rare photograph,there were no graphics. It did not even reviewart exhibitionsuntil readerswroteasking forthis to be a regular feature. was on literatureand The main emphasis of Commune fiction It not criticism. literary only published in translation and essays by many Russian and Chinese Communists,it also publishedwritingsof rank-and-filePartymemberswho writers.Indeed, one of were workers ratherthan professional the most importantgoals of the KharkovCongressof 1930 was the largelyunsuccessful attemptto encouragethe develwith a literaryand artistic bent so that the opmentof workers next generationof writers (and artists) would come almost exclusively from the proletariat.Clearly, the task of Commune was to work out the implicationsof socialist realism nowthat it had become official dogma.The newarts, literary and visual, wereto be realist in formand socialist in content, heroes, documentingthe historical idealizing revolutionary role of the Party,and furtheringthe Party's objectives. A. A. that the new Soviet declared Cultural Zhdanov, Commissar, arts were to be "representative of reality not as it is but as it romantioughtto be," and he coined the term"revolutionary
cism," explaining that the arts were "not intended to hold a mirror up to society but rather to depict a glowing future."'4 Reflecting French Communist Party directives, Commune favorably reviewed Communist painters. These included Lurgat, Lh6te, and nineteenth-century artists known for their sympathetic portrayal of the poor, such as Millet and especially Courbet, who was particularly admired because he had fought in the Paris Commune of 1871. For example, a review of an exhibition of paintings by Edouard Pignon, a French Communist Party member, which appeared in the April 1939 issue, emphasized the artist's working-class background, noting approvingly that he had been a miner, a factory worker, and a typesetter, but made only passing reference to the quality of his art. By the same token, the

review of a biographyof MarcelProust in the March1936 issue condemned Proust for his ivory-tower existence, his admirationfor the aristocracy, and his lack of social and political consciousness; and in May1934, a critic of Louis Aragon'svolume of poetry Hourah l'Oural [Cheers for the Urals] admonished this Surrealist-turned-Communistto writeforthe masses and to stopbeing so esoteric. Surrealism was constantlycriticized. The Communist writerPaulNizan, whowas himself laterexpelledfromthe Party,wrotethat"the profoundseparation of Surrealism and the revolutionary masses is increasing."15 He condemnedthe content of the last issue of Le Surrialisme au servicede la rdvolution, attackedMinotaure,which illustratedthe workof the Surrealists after 1933, as a cynical reviewfor rich art dealers, and accused the Surrealistsof being concernedwith"postrevoluof a kind that should not be posed until tionary problems" aftersocialism was achieved. Othersaccused the Surrealists of insincerity,because they refused to rally to the proletariat and to give their art a genuinely activist content. Although occasionally praising Picasso, who sided with the Left, in spite of his refusal to espouse socialist realism, Commune was resolutelyantimodernist on the groundsthat modernism was a dangerousexpressionof decadentbourgeoisideology. In oppositionto the Stalinist stance promoted by ComBulletin mensuel de la F.IJA .R.I. was launchedin mune,C16: 1939, on the eve of the outbreakof WorldWarII. It was a foundedby monthlypublished by FIARI, the organization LeonTrotsky, in and in 1938 in Breton Mexico Rivera, Diego the hope that it wouldbecome a rallying point for the antiStalinist Left. Trueto its internationalist principles, FIARI sections were formed in Mexico, where Rivera edited the Mexicangroup'snew review,Clave[Key](1939-40), and in England, where a section was fotunded by the editorsof the SurrealistLondon Bulletin (1936-40). The counterpart of C1/ in the United States was the Partisan Review(1934-65), which published not only FIARI's first manifesto but also letters from Trotsky explaining and supporting the new cause. The FIARI foundershoped that C16wouldbecome a "thirdforce"(neitherWesterncapitalistnorEasternCommunist) of non-StalinistLeftist artists and intellectualswho, as the editors of C/ declared optimistically, "will serve the
closely linked causes of art, of revolution, and of man."'6 The publication's manifesto, "Pour un art rdvolutionnaire inddpendant" [For an independent revolutionary art], was signed only by Rivera and Breton because Trotskywas forbidden by the Mexican government to engage in any kind of political activity. Nevertheless, it reflected the convictions of both Trotsky and Breton in asserting that the artist was the natural ally of the revolution and that no genuinely revolutionary party could dictate the form and content of works of art. It insisted on "complete freedom for art" and at the same time maintained that "the supreme task of art in our epoch is to take part actively and consciously in the preparation of the revolution."'7 The dilemma of the artist, as they saw it, was
ART JOURNAL

65

E SOeaIs
i
-.

It PRIX 1I
i- i i:

NI I

1939 JANVIER

. . ..

i:

40

m
m.,.WeU :

".

"

BULLETIN MENSUEL DE LA F. I. A. R. I.
e EDERATION . ...N ,,,,,

IEOEI9AT1QN VOT I o. L'AI3T INTElNATIONAL E I-NDEP . :DE, AT tNTERNATIONALE IVoLUTIONNAIPE

, .

ENDANT iNIP DANT......

BULLET

IN.

1A F...........

I. 40

...

AgDA~rIGN rAMIN----t Ct 40P p.. 2 ,R.p.4PARISC 4o....I 1t .1. lA .M p.arce . And AI pI.NT .0. p440.A

66
Loa
A. p .*q"-

f". .

* -tba..

Of,.
-,..

w d Al. 4 . 1. ,,. , ,., . A. f. r. A p , .

.,.

at
.

...

N,.. 44..of... ..4 ..A ....4"

"0

' A

itoP

r "a P . j" .4 ,ld t po 4!csotfi?#,Ct, i?1 06 -~

?C 0 "l ow eso a a. flf"da?kdmC s'be e

'

FIG.

4 Cover, CI1 [Key], no. 1 (January 1939)1

Italy who were being forcibly repatriated by the French governmenteven though this was tantamountto a death sentence. freedomof art was one of CM's However, majorthemes, as is clearly evidentin the drawing Le ThechezFranco[Teaat Franco's]by Masson, which appeared on the cover of its second and last issue (fig. 5). Adoptingimageryindebtedto Dali, Arp, and Tanguy,MassonshowsFranco,on the right, serving tea to two skeletal and maimed soldiers, one a Nazi and the other a Spanish fascist, whose legs are shackled together.By selecting a Surrealistdrawingfor its cover,the editorsof CM proclaimedtheir openness to innovative,modernist art. Such tolerancewas veryrareon the farLeft, since Trotskyist parties were usually no morereceptiveto modernism than were the Stalinists. But as the threat of war loomed ever larger, Herbert Read, a memberof FIARI in England, voiced a feeling of pessimism that must have been sharedby manyas they saw artists and intellectualsbeing ruthlessly purgedall overthe world: In our decadentsociety . . . art must enterinto a monastic phase .... Artmustnowbecome evenhermetic. individualistic, We mustrenounce as the mostpueriledelusionthehopethatart can everagain perform a socialfunction . . . This is equally true in Russia and in the West.Art has becomenonsense [because] it matterslittle whetheryour army is military or industrial;it is still an army and the only art appropriate for an army is the musicof a military marchingband.20 The role that CMtried to play as guardianof liberty in every sphere, in politics and in the arts, was admirable,but given the repressive climate of France in the late thirties, it was madea perfect completelyineffectual. Sadly, Read'sremarks epitaphto the ideals of FIARI. What is curious in an analysis of these periodicalsis the timidity in artistic mattersof the two that were Communist. Clartdchose the mostbanal and derivative woodcutsfor its illustrations,and Commune had no graphicsat all in spite of being a journal for artists as well as for writers. Their
contents stand in sharp contrast to the experimental works in every medium that appeared in the two Surrealist journals and in CM. To the Communists' insistence on the simplest realism that the most uneducated worker could easily understand, Breton retorted that you could not cloak a revolutionary message in a conservative form. Yet for all the Surrealists' protestations that they were true revolutionaries who fervently

that "everyprogressivetendencyin art is destroyedby fascism as 'degenerate.' Everyfree creationis called 'fascist'by the Stalinists, and he [the artist] has nowhereto turn.""' artist joined Ignoredby capitalist society, the revolutionary the Communist Partyin orderto escape fromhis isolationbut could notremainin the Partywithoutbecomingeitherdemoralized or subservient. The foundersof the FIARI hopedthat their new organization wouldprovidea viable alternativefor artists and writerson the Left. C1 was primarily a political journal, and its belligerent stance was indicated by the emblazonedletters on the coverof its first issue (fig. 4). Its first editorialdenouncedthe new decrees against foreignersresiding in France, which even affected some FIARI members. These laws were "the politics of panic";to deny the right of asylum was a fascistic measure and one that refused to recognize the role of Paris, which for generationshad been the homeof the international avant-garde:"Ourforeign artist comradesare being threatened todayjust as much as our foreignworker comrades."'19 CMalso denouncedthe resurgenceof Frenchnationalismand militarism,which was reachingxenophobic extremes,just as vehementlyas it denouncedStalin and Stalinism. The editors and blamedits defeatby supportedthe SpanishPopularFront Francoon the Frenchpolicy of nonintervention. In a collective protest, "Perspectivesddmocratiques," they came to the defense of Spanish Civil War veterans from Germanyand
SPRING1993

Au sommaire :
RIVERA L(ON TROTSKY DIEGO PARAZ ALBERT READ HIE*RkT PASTOUREAU HENRI COLWNET WCHIEL WULLENS MADILLE MAURICE PIERRE RWMY ALLIGRET JEAN YVES PERET ETC... KNIAMIN Lo Num6nro 1 1fr. 50

N" 2

FEViIER 1939

ABONNEMENTS: As. France 12 fre; LEtraufr 20 fr* UmA

BULLETIN MENSUEL DE LA F. I. A. R. I.
iFEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE L'ART REVOLUTIONNAIRE INDEPENDANT) QOMITI't RtDACTION - ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL. a
Mmmdce NADEAU,15, rue de ls Vistule. Paris- 13S P.eawax ACKER 2.283-49 PARIS C CAoqff.. 170, ue du Temple,Pors.-3e Yves Pierre
ALLEGRET MABILIE,

. Andret BRETON, Michel CoLLINKI, Jean Gmnso, Maurice lis1 ttn. Mn rcel MARnINET, Andre MASSON, h$r Henry POCuIA ROSENTHAL Maurice WULLINS

"Ii
Y?

dAndrt'MASSON Deusin

68

believed in Marxistdoctrine, it is understandable that the French CommunistParty finally expelled them. Failing to graspthe need fordiscipline, theypersistedin retainingwhat a Communistcritic called, in all seriousness, "a bourgeois sense of freedom" with respect to their art.21 This was unacceptableto the Party, which required obedience of its membersand demandedan art that woulddirectly serve its needs. The Party was always suspicious of the artists and intellectualswhojoined its ranks, questioningtheir commitment and their discipline. At issue were two fundamentallydifferent attitudes artand the roleof the artistin society. The Communist toward International developedthe doctrine of socialist realism in the belief that art must immediately serve the cause of revolution.The Surrealists and Trotskyhimself in his last years were primarilyconcernedwith upholdingthe absolute freedomof the artist, which, they insisted, was a necessary for creativity.Believingthat art could serve the precondition revolutioneven if it lacked an overtlyrevolutionary content, art to to maintained that any censorship,even in they subject the name of Marxism,destroyedthe freedomof expression essential to it. Duringthe ColdWar,the conflictbetweenthe principle of the freedom of creativity and the doctrine of socialist realism intensified, with the result that the two camps became furtherpolarized. That the official art of a shouldbe merelyan adaptation Partydedicatedto revolution of a nineteenth-century bourgeoisaesthetic is an ironythat has become increasingly apparent. Breton and his allies view of art. of this narrow werethe mostconsistentopponents members of the were within while they Theycriticized it from FrenchCommunistPartyand continuedto object to it after and cooperation their expulsion, even enlisting the approval of Trotskyas the focus of the dissident artists and intellectuals who gathered aroundC16and FIARI. In spite of the thaw that markedthe beginning of ditente in 1956, it has takenthe revolutionary upheavalsof the 1990s to finally free the artist from the strictures of socialist realism.
SPRING1993

Notes All translationsare by the author,unless otherwiseindicated. 1. Louis Aragon, "Pourqui 6crivez-vous?" [For whom do you write?], Commune [Commune],no. 5 (December 1933): 329. 2. Quoted in Commune,no. 24 (July 1936): 1354. 3. The title evoked the radical uprising of the Paris Communeof 1871, which was an importantpart of the revolutionary legacy of the Left. 4. Andre' Breton, Manifestesdu surrialisme [Manifestosof Surrealism](Paris:JeanJacques Pauvert,1962), 56-57. 5. Andr6 Breton, "Le Surrealisme et la peinture" [Surrealism and painting], La surrialiste [The Surrealist revolution](July 1925): 26-27. Rdvolution surrialiste (October La Rdvolution 6. Andr6 Masson, letter, in "Correspondance," 1925): 30. La Rdvolution first and forever], 7. "LaRevolutiond'abordet toujours" [The revolution surrialiste (October1925): 31-32. 8. Jean Bernier, "Ohnous en sommes" [Where we are], Clartd [Clarity], no. 78 (November30, 1925): 5-6. 9. Pierre Naville, "lActivite de Clarte"[The activity of Clartd], Clarte, n.s. no. 9, (July 15, 1927): 20. 10. L'HumanitM [Humanity], December 7, 1930, 4. 11. L'Humanit6, December 13, 1930, 4. 12. Andre Breton, Entretiens,1913-1952, avec AndrdParinaud [Interviews,19131952, with Andr6 Parinaud](Paris: Gallimard, 1952), 126-27. 13. Ibid., 167. 14. A. A. Zhdanov, "Soviet Literature-The Richest in Ideas, the Most Advanced Literature,"Problemsof Soviet Literature: Reportsand Speeches at the First Soviet Writers' Publishers, 1935), 250Congress,ed. H. G. Scott (New York:International 52. For a more detailed discussion of these issues, see Helena Lewis, Dada Turns Red: The Politics of Surrealism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990), chaps. 6 and 7. no. 1 (July1933): 15. Paul Nizan, "Revuedes revues"[Reviewof reviews], Commune, 86. surrialistes[History 16. MauriceNadeau,Histoiredu surrialismesuiviede documents of Surrealism, followed by Surrealist documents] (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1964), 2:478. 17. LeonTrotsky,Cultureand Socialism andaManifesto:ArtandRevolution (London: New Park Publications, 1963), 37-39. 18. Ibid., 39. contre la xenophobie" 19. Yves Allgret et al., "Protestation [Protestagainst xenophobia], ClM [Key], no. 1 (January1939): 1. 20. Herbert Read, "LArtiste dans le monde moderne"[The artist in the modern world], C16,no. 2 (February1939): 7. 21. Nizan, "Revue des revues," 87.

HELENA LEWIS is a research affiliate of the Harvard UniversityCenter for Literaryand Cultural Studies. Her Politics of Surrealism (1988) was recently reprintedas Dada Turns Red (Edinburgh, 1990).