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Stalinists and Artists in the U.S. "Red Decade"
Cantor, Helen
http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/1069/leftfront.htmlDate Written: 2015-05-29 Publisher: Workers Vanguard Year Published: 2015 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX17904 New York University's recent art show, "The Left Front: Radical Art in the 'Red Decade,' 1929-1940," was a bittersweet experience. In the present period, with successful workers struggles few and far between, the pro-working-class images -- photos, movies of mass May Day parades in New York City, pictures of Great Depression misery, protests, strikes, the fight against Jim Crow segregation -- were, of course, moving. But there was something wrong with this picture. It wasn’t the individual artworks themselves, but the sentimental, prettifying view of and narrow focus on the U.S. Communist Party (CP). Subject Headings |