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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#0322
312
Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius
it written about again, but the names of the Communist artists have been (re)installed to
the canon and put on display in prominent western museums. Moreover, their art is being
employed in critical examination of the ways in which art historical canons are produced,
hiding class, race and gender prejudices behind the notion of universal and autonomous
aesthetic value.19
An analogous process of critical re-assessment of Eastern European socialist realism
has also been initiated, albeit tentatively, and from a variety of critical positions, by re-
searchers both from the East and West.20 However, as an official culture of the 'totalitari-
an' state, thus deprived of the aura of partisanship; moreover, as a phenomenon that was
morally indefensible, Stalinist socialist realism does not lend itself to 're-valorisation', let
alone 're-canonisation'. But, as already said, it is not the 'value', or the 'canon' that I am
seeking in this text, but rather the ways, in which they are constructed, both in the past and
in the present. The intensity of the post-war exchange between the socialist realisms that
functioned on both sides of the Iron Curtain is today by-passed in silence; or else reduced
to the Soviet influence on Paris, London and New York, precluding any uncomfortable
questions regarding the western contribution to the triumph of the 'policing doctrine' in
the battleground of Eastern Europe. Therefore, in spite of the multiplying texts, exhibi-
tions and catalogues of Renato Guttuso, Diego Rivera, or Andre Fougeron, those of their
works which are housed by public collections in East European countries (having been
acquired by the Communist authorities and, subsequently, from the end of the 1950s, hid-
den away from the public gaze) have continued to remain largely unknown to both West-
ern and Eastern European art historians. At the moment, it appears, we have two separate
narratives of socialist realism from the post-war years: the radical or heroic one in the
West, and the criminal or hilarious one in the East. It is my aim to break the hygienic
French Painting 1935-1954, 'Oxford Art Journal' 4, 1980, pp. 61-9; idem, Debats autour du realisme socialiste, [in:]
Paris-Paris: Creations en France 1937-57, exhib. cat., Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou,
Paris 1981, pp. 208-1; idem, Martyrs and Militants, [in:] eds. M. Scriven, P. Wagstaff, War and Society in twentieth-
century France, Providence, RI, Oxford 1991, pp. 219-46; idem,Art and the Politics ofthe Left in France c. 1935-1955,
PhD thesis, University of London, The Courtauld Institute of Art, 1992; idem., Realismes sous le signe du drapeau
rouge, 1945-1960, [in:] Face a 1'Histoire 1933-1961: L'artiste moderne devant_l'evenement historique, exhib. cat.,
Paris, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1996, pp. 243-51; also, texts by the same author
[in:] S. WILSON et al., Paris: Capital ofthe Arts: 1900-1968, exhib. cat., London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2002. On
Andre Fougeron, see: D. MILHAU, Presupposes theoriques et contradictions du nouveau realisme socialiste de Fran-
ce au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale, [in:] Art et ideologies: L'art en occident 1945-49, Saint-Etienne 1976,
pp. 103-31; ed. J.-J. DUTKO, Andre Fougeron: pieces detachees 1937-1987, exhib. cat., Paris, Galerie Jean-Jacques
Dutko, 1987; B. CEYSSON, Bernard Ceysson a propos d'Andre Fougeron, Paris, Gallerie Barbier 1994; R. PERROT,
Esthetique de Fougeron, Paris 1996; V. REHBERG, Realism and Ideology in Andre Fougeron's "Les Pays des Mines",
[in:] eds. V. Mainz, G. Pollock, Work and the Image, vol. II: Work in Modern Times: Visual Mediations and Social
Processes, Aldershot 2000. On Renato Guttoso: Guttuso, exhib. cat., London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1996, London
1996. On the British art on the Left: L. MORRIS, R. RADFORD, The Story of AIA 1933-1953, exhib. cat., Oxford,
Museum of Modern Art, 1983; R. RADFORD, Art for a Purpose: The Artists International Association 1933-1953,
Winchester 1987; J. HYMAN, The Battle for Realism: Figurative Art in Britain during the Cold War 1945-1960, New
Haven, London 2001. On American art on the Left: E. COCKROFT, J. WEBER and J. COCKROFT, Towards a Pe-
ople'sArt: The Contemporary Mural Movement, New York 1977; P. ALLARA, Pictures of People: Aline Neel's Ameri-
can Portrait Gallery, Hanover, London 1998; A. HEMINGWAY, Art ofthe American Left ...,op. cit; on Latin-American
art: D. ROCHFORT, Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros, London 1993; A. W. LEE, Painting on the Left:
Diego Rivera, Radical Politics and San Franciscos Public Murals, Berkeley and London 1999; D. CRAVEN, Art and
Revolution in Latin America: 1910-1990, New Haven and London 2002.
19 A. HEMINGWAY, Art of the American Left ..., op. cit. Tntroduction'.
20 Refer back to footnote 17.
Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius
it written about again, but the names of the Communist artists have been (re)installed to
the canon and put on display in prominent western museums. Moreover, their art is being
employed in critical examination of the ways in which art historical canons are produced,
hiding class, race and gender prejudices behind the notion of universal and autonomous
aesthetic value.19
An analogous process of critical re-assessment of Eastern European socialist realism
has also been initiated, albeit tentatively, and from a variety of critical positions, by re-
searchers both from the East and West.20 However, as an official culture of the 'totalitari-
an' state, thus deprived of the aura of partisanship; moreover, as a phenomenon that was
morally indefensible, Stalinist socialist realism does not lend itself to 're-valorisation', let
alone 're-canonisation'. But, as already said, it is not the 'value', or the 'canon' that I am
seeking in this text, but rather the ways, in which they are constructed, both in the past and
in the present. The intensity of the post-war exchange between the socialist realisms that
functioned on both sides of the Iron Curtain is today by-passed in silence; or else reduced
to the Soviet influence on Paris, London and New York, precluding any uncomfortable
questions regarding the western contribution to the triumph of the 'policing doctrine' in
the battleground of Eastern Europe. Therefore, in spite of the multiplying texts, exhibi-
tions and catalogues of Renato Guttuso, Diego Rivera, or Andre Fougeron, those of their
works which are housed by public collections in East European countries (having been
acquired by the Communist authorities and, subsequently, from the end of the 1950s, hid-
den away from the public gaze) have continued to remain largely unknown to both West-
ern and Eastern European art historians. At the moment, it appears, we have two separate
narratives of socialist realism from the post-war years: the radical or heroic one in the
West, and the criminal or hilarious one in the East. It is my aim to break the hygienic
French Painting 1935-1954, 'Oxford Art Journal' 4, 1980, pp. 61-9; idem, Debats autour du realisme socialiste, [in:]
Paris-Paris: Creations en France 1937-57, exhib. cat., Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou,
Paris 1981, pp. 208-1; idem, Martyrs and Militants, [in:] eds. M. Scriven, P. Wagstaff, War and Society in twentieth-
century France, Providence, RI, Oxford 1991, pp. 219-46; idem,Art and the Politics ofthe Left in France c. 1935-1955,
PhD thesis, University of London, The Courtauld Institute of Art, 1992; idem., Realismes sous le signe du drapeau
rouge, 1945-1960, [in:] Face a 1'Histoire 1933-1961: L'artiste moderne devant_l'evenement historique, exhib. cat.,
Paris, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1996, pp. 243-51; also, texts by the same author
[in:] S. WILSON et al., Paris: Capital ofthe Arts: 1900-1968, exhib. cat., London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2002. On
Andre Fougeron, see: D. MILHAU, Presupposes theoriques et contradictions du nouveau realisme socialiste de Fran-
ce au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale, [in:] Art et ideologies: L'art en occident 1945-49, Saint-Etienne 1976,
pp. 103-31; ed. J.-J. DUTKO, Andre Fougeron: pieces detachees 1937-1987, exhib. cat., Paris, Galerie Jean-Jacques
Dutko, 1987; B. CEYSSON, Bernard Ceysson a propos d'Andre Fougeron, Paris, Gallerie Barbier 1994; R. PERROT,
Esthetique de Fougeron, Paris 1996; V. REHBERG, Realism and Ideology in Andre Fougeron's "Les Pays des Mines",
[in:] eds. V. Mainz, G. Pollock, Work and the Image, vol. II: Work in Modern Times: Visual Mediations and Social
Processes, Aldershot 2000. On Renato Guttoso: Guttuso, exhib. cat., London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1996, London
1996. On the British art on the Left: L. MORRIS, R. RADFORD, The Story of AIA 1933-1953, exhib. cat., Oxford,
Museum of Modern Art, 1983; R. RADFORD, Art for a Purpose: The Artists International Association 1933-1953,
Winchester 1987; J. HYMAN, The Battle for Realism: Figurative Art in Britain during the Cold War 1945-1960, New
Haven, London 2001. On American art on the Left: E. COCKROFT, J. WEBER and J. COCKROFT, Towards a Pe-
ople'sArt: The Contemporary Mural Movement, New York 1977; P. ALLARA, Pictures of People: Aline Neel's Ameri-
can Portrait Gallery, Hanover, London 1998; A. HEMINGWAY, Art ofthe American Left ...,op. cit; on Latin-American
art: D. ROCHFORT, Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros, London 1993; A. W. LEE, Painting on the Left:
Diego Rivera, Radical Politics and San Franciscos Public Murals, Berkeley and London 1999; D. CRAVEN, Art and
Revolution in Latin America: 1910-1990, New Haven and London 2002.
19 A. HEMINGWAY, Art of the American Left ..., op. cit. Tntroduction'.
20 Refer back to footnote 17.