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DOI Artikel:Murawska-Muthesius, Katarzyna: How the West corroborated socialist realism in the East: Fougeron, Taslitzky and Picasso in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49349#0321
How the West corroborated Socialist Realism in the East
311
5. Andre Fougeron, Miner's still-life, 1950, 64,5 x 92 cm,
Warsaw, The National Museum
By the time of my return visit to the Museum repository, I knew that the authors of
those forlorn works belonged to the militant group of communist artists, who, in the after-
math of the Second World War, in the era of the of the repositioning of the artistic hegem-
ony between Paris and New York, declared themselves warriors of the Left.17 For them,
the choice of realism was the answer to the modernist crisis of representation and to the
ensuing detachment and self-referentiality of the artist. Like Andrzej Wróblewski in
Poland, they renounced deliberately their own youthful modernist experiments in order to
create the new realism, the 'people's realism', accessible to everyone, and not just the
lucky few. Their works, as declared by Louis Aragon - the chief ideologist of the move-
ment in France, sometimes described as the 'French Zhdanov' - 'ceased to be an amuse-
ment', and, bridging the gap between art and life, were overtly invested with politics,
pronouncing themselves as weapons against an elitist and self-absorbed modernism. Like-
wise, in a purely avant-garde manner, they were making themselves known through
ephemeral exhibitions and reproductions in specialised leftist journals in their own coun-
tries - in striking contrast to Eastern European socialist realism, hegemonie in its own
field. What is readily forgotten today, however, is that western Communist artists were
also given huge attention in Eastern Europe, including exhibitions, publications, repro-
ductions, as well as the highest honours from the authorities. In fact their presence was
instrumental in the justification of socialist realism as the 'new art' in Peoples' democra-
cies. And yet, western art of the militant Left, although banned for a while from the dom-
inant art historical discourse, re-acquired a relative visibility in the 1970s, featuring in a
steadily growing number of texts and exhibitions in mainstream galleries.18 Not only was
17 On the post-war painting 'games', see: S. GUILBAUT, Postwar Painting Games: The Rough and the Slick [in:] ed.
idem, Reconstructing Modernism. Art in New York, Paris and Montreal 1945-1964, Cambridge, Mass, London 1990,
pp. 30-79.
18 See, amongst others: D.D. EGBERT, Social Radicalism and the Arts: A Cultural History from the French Revolution
to 1968, London 1970. On the French Left, see: S. WILSON, "La Beaute Revolutionnaire" ? Realisme Socialiste and
311
5. Andre Fougeron, Miner's still-life, 1950, 64,5 x 92 cm,
Warsaw, The National Museum
By the time of my return visit to the Museum repository, I knew that the authors of
those forlorn works belonged to the militant group of communist artists, who, in the after-
math of the Second World War, in the era of the of the repositioning of the artistic hegem-
ony between Paris and New York, declared themselves warriors of the Left.17 For them,
the choice of realism was the answer to the modernist crisis of representation and to the
ensuing detachment and self-referentiality of the artist. Like Andrzej Wróblewski in
Poland, they renounced deliberately their own youthful modernist experiments in order to
create the new realism, the 'people's realism', accessible to everyone, and not just the
lucky few. Their works, as declared by Louis Aragon - the chief ideologist of the move-
ment in France, sometimes described as the 'French Zhdanov' - 'ceased to be an amuse-
ment', and, bridging the gap between art and life, were overtly invested with politics,
pronouncing themselves as weapons against an elitist and self-absorbed modernism. Like-
wise, in a purely avant-garde manner, they were making themselves known through
ephemeral exhibitions and reproductions in specialised leftist journals in their own coun-
tries - in striking contrast to Eastern European socialist realism, hegemonie in its own
field. What is readily forgotten today, however, is that western Communist artists were
also given huge attention in Eastern Europe, including exhibitions, publications, repro-
ductions, as well as the highest honours from the authorities. In fact their presence was
instrumental in the justification of socialist realism as the 'new art' in Peoples' democra-
cies. And yet, western art of the militant Left, although banned for a while from the dom-
inant art historical discourse, re-acquired a relative visibility in the 1970s, featuring in a
steadily growing number of texts and exhibitions in mainstream galleries.18 Not only was
17 On the post-war painting 'games', see: S. GUILBAUT, Postwar Painting Games: The Rough and the Slick [in:] ed.
idem, Reconstructing Modernism. Art in New York, Paris and Montreal 1945-1964, Cambridge, Mass, London 1990,
pp. 30-79.
18 See, amongst others: D.D. EGBERT, Social Radicalism and the Arts: A Cultural History from the French Revolution
to 1968, London 1970. On the French Left, see: S. WILSON, "La Beaute Revolutionnaire" ? Realisme Socialiste and