Art Front Gerald M. Monroe Archives of American
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Art Front Gerald M. Monroe Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 13, No. 3. (1973), pp. 13-19. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-9853%281973%2913%3A3%3C13%3AAF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9 Archives of American Art Journal is currently published by The Smithsonian Institution. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. 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/journals/si.html. 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. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Sun Jan 13 12:08:42 2008 writer and &tor of trade magazines, a Communist functionary with respon- published an art bulletin under the aegis sibility in cultural matters, placed the of his gallery. He offered Gellert the use magazine under the direct control of the of the bulletin; Gellert suggested to the union, and the split dtorial committee executive board of the Artists Union that was abandoned in favor of a slngle edi- an official journal would be useful to torial board. The April 1935 issue de- both organizations- the board agreed. clared that Art Front was the "official The first item of business at the publication of the Artists Union." The meeting was the selection of a name for combined logos of the Artists Commit- the proposed publication. After several tee of Action and the Artists Union con- unsuccessful proposals the word "front" tinued to appear on the masthead until seemed to be in the air. The Russians December 1936, although the magazine Art Front had a literarymagazine called On Guard, had been truly cosponsored only for the and Mayakovsky edited a magazine first two issues. Gerald M. Monroe called Left Front. New York artists were The demise of the Artists Commit- more likely to be familiar with the organ tee of Action did not completely remove Dunng the bleak days of the Great of the Chcago Reed Club, also known as conflicting attitudes regarding the proper Depression the Roosevelt Admimstra- Left Front and published in 1933 and role for the publication. The editorial tion resorted to large-scale work-relief 1934. Herb Kruckman suggested Art board was in agreement on the need to projects as a partial response to the se- Front as the title and it was immediately stress the economic goals of the union, vere economic crisis. A traumatized adopted. An editorial committee was to publicize grievances, and to report Congress gave the president a relatively formed with Baron as managing editor, activities related to the struggle for eco- free hand to innovate programs in the and the first issue was planned to appear nomic and professional security. The hope that he rmght turn the economy in time to publicize a mass demonstra- board dsdained "those arty magazines around and relieve the suffering of the tion to be held at City Hall on October which normally ignore anythmg outside unemployed. One of themore innovative 27, 1934. The readers of Art Front were the gallery world." Conflicts arose per- -and controversial- programs was mas- assured it would be unlike any other art taining to the extent art essays, critiques, sive employment of artists by the gov- magazine: and reviews would be included. Although ernment. In an effort to gain and expand the social realists were in the vast ma- government patronage, a group of mili- Without one exception, however, jority, the entire range of art styles tant artists formed a trade union of these periodicals support outworn existed within the rank and file and the painters, sculptors, and print-makers, economic concepts as a basis for the leadership.The leaders, hghly motivated many of whom were close to or mflu- support of art which victimize and by their political involvement, were enced by the Communist Party. The dy- destroy art. The urgent need for a generally committed to the Marxist doc- namic, colorful Artists Union soon be- publicationwhich speaks for the art- trine of "art as propaganda." They be- came know for its aggressive tactics- ist, battles for his economic security lieved the official publication of the engaging in mass picketing, stnkes, and and guides hmin hsartistic efforts union had a responsibility to guide its sit-ins. For three years, the union pub- is self-evident.l members in their role as revolutionary lished Art Front, probably the liveliest The magazine sold for five cents a artists, and there was always pressure art periodical of the time. copy with a yearly subscription rate of within the editorial board to interpret In the fall of 1934, Hugo Gellert in- sixty cents. The intention clearly was to that role in the narrowest social-realist vited Herman Baron, who ehbited publish monthly, but the first volume of sense. The editors and writers of Art many of the left-wing artists in his seven issues appeared intermittently Front were committed to social change American Contemporary Artists gallery, over a period of tlxrteen months (No- and concerned about the correct role of to join the executive board of the Artists vember 1934, and January, February, art and the artist in a changing society; Committee of Action, a loose confedera- April, May, July, and November 1935), much of the vidty of this spunky little tion of artists organized to protest the printed in an awkward, oversize eleven- magazine derived from the struggle of a destruction of the Die o Rivera mural at by-sixteen-inch format, each issue con- minority of the editors to extend the Rockefeller Center wL 'ch had included sisting of eight pages. The generous size range of revolutionary art beyond prop- a portrait of Lenin. Subsequent to the of the magazine was appropriate for aganda. demonstration, the artists decided to street sales during demonstrations; the In the Artists Union section of the continue worlung as a group to agmte posterlike covers were broadly designed first issue of Art Front, considerable for a municipally-supported but artist- and highly visible. The February 1935 space was devoted to a proposal for a per- operated gallery. Gellert, well known as issue had several photographs of a street manent federal art project; it was to re- a left-wing artist, was elected chauman, demonstration in which members of the main a major editorial theme and it was Lionel Reiss became secretary, and Zol- Artists Union can be seen hawking Art a rare issue that did not have an editorial tan Hecht was chosen as treasurer. It was Front. or an article concerning the plan. a more or less "paper" organization con- trolled by Gellert who was able to attract Dunng the fomdmg of the maga- Stuart Davis functioned as editor-in- large numbers of artists to demonstra- zine, tensions had developed between chief for the second through the tenth tions and to solicit the support of dis- the Artists Committee of Action, with issue, although the masthead did not in- tinguished public figures. Baron, a former its primarily professional goals, and the dcate an editorial board until the sev- Artists Union, with its primarily eco- enth issue, or an editor-in-chief until the nomic goals. The first issue was almost eighth issue. Davis was able to maintain exclusively devoted to promotmg the a close personal relationshp with Hugo programs of both groups, but there was Gellert and the social reahsts on the heated debate about the eventual thrust board, whle encouragmg a more open Gerald M. Monroe teaches painting and drawing at of the magazine as well as the ability of attitude toward art content in the maga- Glassboro State College and is a 1973 recipient of a zine. He asked John Graham to review Fellowshp from the National Endowment for the the two organizations to work together. Humanities to study the influence of left-wing po- The resolution of these problems, re- Eight Modes of Modem Painting at the litical activities in the visual arts during the 1930s. solved with the assistance of V. J. Jerome, Julien Levy Gallery and Davis, himself, NOVEMBER 1934 ARTISTS COMMITTEI ' ARTISTS UNION reviewed favorably the painting by Sal- on Time's cover, Davis cruelly added, ney Museum exhibition, Abstract Paint- vadore Dali at the same gallery. "We must at least gve him credit for ing in America, and the exhibition itself Clarence Weinstock, writer, board not making any exception in his general were both attacked by Weinstock in the member, and later managing editor, underestimation of the human race." 6 April issue. Abstract art, declared Wein- joined Art Front when the second issue As for John Stewart Curry, Davis asks, stock, "is founded on a limited debtion was being prepared. Weinstock, an ex- "How can a man .