A time of revolution is a great time for the development of art. The new workers' state set up in the Soviet Union after the Russian revolution in 1917 trigged an incredible wave of cultural energy. Artists, writers, and architects embraced the revolution as the workers' state opened up universities, studios and museums. Resources were made available on the basis of the nationalized planned economy which enabled them to promote and defend this new revolutionary world. To express it and to express themselves, the working class began to empower and develop themselves.
In 1919, the Museum of Artistic Culture was created to bring together modern art, Asian and European art, religious icons and folk art to reflect the diverse and universal nature of the Soviet Union. The director, Kazmir Malevich's goal for the museum to function for "the broad mass of the people". It flourished until 1926, a Stanlinist straightjacket halted the democratic nature of the arts, an ominous sign of future developments.
The obedience of culture during the Third Reich was something deeply embedded into the sickly nationalist face of fascist propaganda. Individual struggle was silenced; heroic realism (a grossly misinterpreted form of art) controlled colloquial culture. In 1933 the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Culture Chamber) authorized only conservative aesthetics; if art, music, and literature produced didn't support the fascist Party system, they were politically crucified.
Above: Malevich's Black Cross, 1923.
While the strangling of non-traditional culture was ablaze on the Swastika, its effect was carried out in the wake of capitalism for the next 70 years. The classicist art promoted by Hitler and Stalin while it portrayed a generic heroic, did not characterize the individual class struggle that the state was overwhelmed by. Instead, the work championed by the Reich symbolized privilege and power in capital and heredity that few could surpass. Even within contemporary institutions, the public collections portray a standard in which all other art will be held victim to, and one that is rooted in an evil history of murder and power. In certain pockets of music and art, a few victories have gone unnoticed. From the proletariat brains of Henry Cow to the protected and masked identities of The Residents, the political underbelly of the avant-garde remains low on the scale despite their valiant efforts.
Let's begin with Henry Cow.
"The work must be worth doing."-William Morris, Art and Socialism
A socialist realist revolution slipped silently through the early and often experimental roster of Virgin Records in 1975. Henry Cow, an equal team of three men and three women released their second album, In Praise of Learning, a musical amalgam that reflected the total experience of living under capitalism.
Amid the complexities of Vietnam and the early 70's, other musicians took on thorny issues, but none were more dangerous than Henry Cow. If there ever was a proletariat art, this was it. Clocking in a little under 40 minutes, In Praise of Learning was deeply mercurial and penetrating, spawning few imitators. The opening track, War, lays its card on the table:
Come follow me
Out of dark obscurity
Follow my torch
Pilgrims at the double march
Through meadows & seas
Abattoirs and libraries
The pilgrims increase
Boasting they are led by peace
They gut huts with gusto
Pillage villages with verve
War does what she has to
People get what they deserve.
Henry Cow's music functioned like anthems of an anti-system without the economic inducement that other musicians were rewarded. Adopting a truly self-sufficient and independent method of production, the band did all elements of the work themselves; mastering, cover design, cutting, pressing and manufacturing.
While touring in Rome in 1975, they befriended another music group, Italy's Stormy Six who were also members of the PCI (Italian Communist Party).
This political union spurred in 1978 Rock in Opposition (RIO), originally a single concert held at the New London Theatre, eventually forming a cooperative line-up of other groups (Univers Zero, Art Bears, etc.)
