Morning Comrades!
Before I continue with this mini-series on art in the service of the revolution I wanted to share a few thoughts with you, on art, purpose, capitalism and to a certain degree our current reality and possible future.
I watched a TikTok the other day that resonated well with my own feelings towards making “art” in the broadest of senses over the last few years. In it, the commentator explained quite clearly how “art” these days - and I would wager for as along as I have been around - is predominately about marketing and PR, rather than art itself. The commentators focus lied entirely on the insanity that is social media and art - and again, I would have to agree here. A main reason I stepped away from illustration and design two years ago is that the constant need to produce for likes, communication with the platform and its users and the extremely damaging quantification of all art in terms of a numeric value ( likes ) burnt me the fuck out. Entirely. I still look at my pens and shudder these days. It is not so much for a lack of ideas but art, under capitalism, serves the purpose of creating monetary value, and social value for the artist potentially later. Other than that, I am struggling to name more than 10-20 artists of the last 30 years whose work “serves”, as a mirror, as a hammer, as a rallying signal, as anything other than generating money ( and potentially fame, even though these two are obviously interlinked ). Music is a prime example of this, but all fields such as painting, performance, theatre, hell, even my niche of political commentary are all geared towards making money, purely in the service of capitalism. You’d be shocked to find out how much marketing and PR I would have to employ to even get into Verso’s front door. I’d have to hire a publicist but yeah, why? How even?
I am not sure if you have drawn the line along the last three instalments of this series and the artists I have chosen to highlight, but there is one, that all artists and their work I have shown here used their art in the service of the proletarian revolution. More so, all artists shown here so far all worked for institutes, collectives and organizations that either in part, or wholly, produced artwork ( this goes for all forms of art not just illustration etc ) for the purpose of education, solidarity and propaganda*.
*yes, absolutely, propaganda, every movement has it, even capitalism, it’s called Hollywood these days.
Imagine a time and place where organisations such as OSPAAAL, an abbreviation for: Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America existed. OSPAAL, Organización de Solidaridad de los Pueblos de Asia, África y América Latina as a Cuban political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalisation, imperialism, neoliberalism, and defending human rights. The OSPAAAL was founded in Havana in January 1966, after the Tricontinental Conference, a meeting of over 500 delegates and 200 observers from over 82 countries.
Acting as the "key bridge" to unite liberation struggles and movements in the three continents, OSPAAAL's main objective is the promotion of anti-imperialism. The Organization of American States (OAS) called OSPAAAL "the most dangerous threat that international communism has yet made against the inter-American system".
OSPAAAL's motto was "This great humanity has said: enough! And has started to move forward".
Until 2019, it published the magazine Tricontinental as their main transnational communication tool. The often cited here “Tricontinental Institute for Social Research” seeks to continue the heritage of the Tricontinental conference and the organization. They "stand, in the words of Franz Fanon, with the wretched of the earth to create a world of human beings."
Similar to the Soviet Comintern and the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists that I mentioned last week, OSPAAAL worked closely with artists in Central and South America who offered their services for the revolution of the working classes. These organisations offered studio space, materials, exhibitions, international travel and even payment for this work. Imagine that today! Imagine the art possible whose creation was removed from the constraints of having to survive under capitalism. I know, it feels like a pipe dream but I would long for that entirely. To hell with the honey trap of “freedom” to create in the free world, when all platforms, all avenues, all entry points require at the very least obedience to trends created by CIA agents working for Facebook and Co. and the usual party and bullshit to suck up to born rich gallery owners ( been there, didn’t agree with me ) for “exposure”.
In any case, the reason for this introduction to the OSPAAAL was that I came across an archive of art on the Danish Film Institute’s Flickr account ( don’t ask ) of 1960s/70s Cuban Film posters, all produced with help of the above and predominately by these three artists:
Even though these artworks aren’t overtly political proletarian propaganda, they were ( probably still are ) illegal in the U.S. and irrespective that fact, quite brilliant. Following is a brief selection of them that I found worthwhile to share but I have also linked the Flickr account above. Absolutely worth your time. The idea remains, for our future but also for present, that “art” in the broadest sense needs a serious de-coupling from the constraints of capitalism, social media and re-assert a purpose larger than generating monetary value.
Enjoy!