Anarchism and the arts: Encyclopedia - Anarchism and the arts

Anarchism and the arts

Schools
Anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-communism
Anarcho-primitivism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Christian anarchism
Eco-anarchism
Individualist anarchism
Mutualism

Anarchism in culture

Anarchism and religion
Anarchism and society
Anarchism and the arts
Anarcho-punk

Anarchist theory

Anarchism and capitalism
Anarchism and Marxism
Anarchist economics
Anarchist law
Anarchist symbolism
Anarchism
without adjectives
Post-left anarchy

Relevant lists

Anarchists
Communities
Concepts
Creative works
Musicians
Organizations
Websites

Anarchism has long had an association with the creative arts, particularly in music and literature. It shares these traits with other radical political movements, such as socialism, communism and even fascism. Some of this art, like punk rock, would become partially co-opted by capitalist industry (a process called "recuperation" by the situationists).

The influence of anarchism is not always directly a matter of specific imagery or public figures, but may be seen in a certain stance towards the liberation of the total human being and the imagination.

Anarchism had a large influence on French Symbolism of the late 19th century, such as that of Stéphane Mallarmé, who was quoting as saying "Je ne sais pas d'autre bombe, qu'un livre." (I know of no bomb other than the book.) Its ideas infiltrated the cafes and cabarets of turn of the century Paris (see the Drunken Boat #2).

More significantly, anarchists claim that 'strains' may be found in the works of the Dada group, whose anti-bourgeois art antics saw them wreaking havoc in war neutral Switzerland during World War I. However on closer analysis the Dadaists were much closer to the Council Communists, having much of their material published in Die Aktion.

Many White American artists of the early 20th century were influenced by anarchist ideas, if they weren't anarchists themselves. The Ashcan School of American realism included anarchist artists, as well as artists such as Rockwell Kent and George Bellows that were influenced by anarchist ideas. Abstract expressionism also included anarchist artists such as Mark Rothko and painters such as Jackson Pollock, who had adopted radical ideas during his experience as a muralist for the Works Progress Administration. Pollock's father had also been a Wobbly.

In the late 20th century, anarchism and the arts could primarily be associated with the collage works by James Koehnline, Freddie Baer, Johan Humyn Being, and others, whose work was being published in anarchist magazines, including Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and Fifth Estate. Freddie Baer is noteworthy for her work as a book designer for AK Press and for her contributions to the feminist science fiction milieu. Baer has contributed art to the annual WisCon conference, a convention featuring feminist science fiction which awards the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Freddie Baer has been nominated several times for the Hugo Award for her work as a fan artist. Also, The Living Theatre, a theatrical troupe headed by Judith Malina and Julian Beck, were outspoken about their anarchism, often incorporating anarchistic themes into their performances.

In the 1990s, anarchists were involved in the mail art movement, which can be described as "art which uses the postal service in some way." This is related to the involvement of many anarchists in the zine movement. And many contemporary anarchists are involved in making art in the form of flyposters, stencils, and radical puppets.

Anarchism and the arts - Surrealism

"An anarchist world... a surrealist world: They are the same." —Andre Breton.

Anarchism has traditionally emphasized the liberation of the imagination and subjectivity from the constraints of the present social order, so it no surprise that many anarchists are attracted to the work of the surrealists.

Surrealism is both an artistic and political movement aimed at the liberation of the human being from the constraints of capitalism, the state, and the cultural forces that limit the reign of the imagination. The movement developed in France in the wake of WWI with Andre Breton as its main theorist and poet. Originally it was tied closely to the Communist Party. Later, Breton, a close friend of Leon Trotsky, broke with the Communist Party.

Anarchism and the arts - Music

A number of performers and artists have either been inspired by anarchist concepts, or have used the medium of music and sound in order to promote anarchist ideas and politics.

Punk rock is one movement that has taken much inspiration from the often potent imagery and symbolism associated with anarchism and situationist rhetoric, if not always the political theory. In the past few decades, anarchism has been closely associated with the punk rock movement, and has grown because of that association (whatever other effects that has had on the movement and the prejudiced pictures of it). Indeed, many anarchists were introduced to the ideas of Anarchism through that symbolism and the anti-authoritarian sentiment which many punk songs expressed.

Anarcho-punk, on the other hand, is a current that has been more explicitly engaged with anarchist politics, particularly in the case of bands such as Crass, Poison Girls, (early) Chumbawamba, The Ex, Flux of Pink Indians, Rudimentary Peni, Riot/Clone, Conflict, Propagandhi, etc. Many other bands, especially at the local level of unsigned groups, have taken on what is known as a "punk" or "DIY" ethic: that is, Doing It Yourself, indeed a popular Anarcho-punk slogan reads "DIY not EMI", a reference to a conscious rejection of the major record company. Some groups who began as 'anarcho-punk' have attempted to move their ideas into a more mainstream musical arena, for instance, Chumbawamba, who continue to support and promote anarchist politics despite now playing more dance music and pop influenced styles.

Techno music is also connected strongly to anarchists and eco-anarchists, as many of the events playing these types of music are self-organised and put on in contravension of national laws. Sometimes doors are pulled off empty warehouses and the insides transformed into illegal clubs with cheap (or free) entrance, types of music not heard elsewhere and quite often an abundance of different drugs. Other raves may be held outside, and are viewed negatively by the authorities. In the UK, the Criminal Justice Bill (1994) outlawed these events (raves) and brought together a coalition of socialists, ravers and direct actionists who opposed the introduction of this 'draconian' Act of Parliament by having a huge 'party&protest' in the Centre of London that descended into one of the largest riots of the 1990s in Britain. Digital hardcore, an electronic music genre, is also overtly anarchist; Atari Teenage Riot is the most widely recognized digital hardcore band. It should be noted that both Digital Hardcore, Techno and related genres are not the sole preserve of anarchists; people of many musical, political or recreational persuasions are involved in these musical scenes.

Anarchism and the arts - Artists and artworks inspired by anarchism

Anarchism and the arts - Visual Art

• Freddie Baer
• Carlo Carrà's The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
• Flavio Constantini
• Marcel Duchamp
• Mike Flugennock
• Clifford Harper
• Jay Kinney (Anarchy Comics)
• Arthur Moyse
• Latuff
• Laura Norder
• Donald Rooum (Wildcat Comics, see Freedom newspaper)
• Mark Rothko
• Winston Smith
• Seth Tobocman
• Camille Pissarro
• Gee Vaucher
• John Yates
• Donald Judd
• Francis Picabia
• José Guadalupe Posada
• Carlos Cortez
• Eric Drooker
• Josh MacPhee
• James Koehnline

Anarchism and the arts - Music

See: List of anarchist musicians

Anarchism and the arts - Prose

• Edward Abbey
  • The Monkey Wrench Gang
• Isaac Babel
  • "Discourse on the Tachanka", Collected Stories
  • "Old man Makhno"
• Iain M. Banks
  • The Culture novels
• Don Bannister
  • Hard Walls of Ego
• Ralph Bates
  • Lean Men (1934)
• Horst Bienek
  • Bakunin: An Invention (1970)
• André Breton
• Joseph Conrad
  • The Secret Agent (1907)
• Greg Egan
• Dario Fo
  • Accidental Death of An Anarchist
• Pietro Gori
  • Primo Maggio (1895)
• Frank Harris
  • The Bomb (1908)
• M. John Harrison
• Jaroslav Hašek
  • The Good Soldier Švejk
• Robert A. Heinlein
  • The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
• Henry James
  • The Princess Casamassima (1886)
• Ba Jin
  • Family (1931)
• Maurice Leblanc
  • Arsène Lupin books were inspired by Marius Jacob
• Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Dispossessed
• Emmanuel Litvinoff
  • A Death Out Of Season
• J. William Lloyd
• Ken MacLeod
  • Fall Revolution sequence
• Leo Malet
  • Fog on the Tolbiac Bridge
• Ethel Mannin
  • Red Rose
  • The Lover Under Another Name
• Henry Miller
  • Tropic of Cancer
• Michael Moorcock
• Alan Moore
  • V for Vendetta
• Emile Pataud (and Emile Pouget)
  • How Shall We Bring About The Revolution? (1913)
• Pedro de Paz
  • The Man Who Killed Durruti
• Marge Piercy
  • Woman on the Edge of Time
• Emric Pressburger
  • • Killing a Mouse on Sunday
• Olivia & Helen Rossetti
  • A Girl Among the Anarchists (1903) by Isabel Meredith (fictional memoir)
• Ramon J. Sender
  • Seven Red Sundays (1932)
• Victor Serge
  • Birth of our Power
  • Men in Prison
• Upton Sinclair
  • Boston (1928)
• Leo Tolstoy
• B. Traven
  • Government (1931)
  • The Carreta (1931)
  • March to the Monteria (1933)
  • The Troza (1936)
  • The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936)
  • The General From The Jungle (1940)
• Lois Waisbrooker
• Richard Whiting
  • No. 5 John Street
• Oscar Wilde
• Robert Anton Wilson
  • Illuminatus trilogy
  • Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati
• Emile Zola
  • Germinal (1885)
  • The Debacle (1892)

Anarchism and the arts - Poetry

• Voltairine de Cleyre
• Hugo Dewar
  • Barcelona (1936)
• David Edelstadt
  • Albert Parsons
  • Louis Lingg
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Pietro Gori
• Sadakichi Hartmann
• Joe Hill
• Philip Lamantia
• Phillip Levine
• John Henry Mackay
  • Anarchy
• John Manifold
  • Makhno’s Philosophers
• Kenneth Patchen
• Benjamin Péret
• Diane di Prima
• Herbert Read
  • The Death of Kropotkin
• Kenneth Rexroth
  • Again at Waldheim
• Lola Ridge
• Karl Shapiro
  • Death of Emma Goldman
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
  • The Masque of Anarchy
• T-Bone Slim
• Gary Snyder
• Ernst Toller
• George Woodcock
  • Black Flag

Anarchism and the arts - Film/Video

• Jean Vigo
• Godfrey Reggio
• Otto Nomous — produced numerous short and long form documentary movies on anarchist politics including Anarchy in L.A. and The Fellowship of the Ring of Free Trade.
• Luis Buñuel
• Jon Jost
• Adonis Kyrou
• Nelly Kaplan
• Hal Hartley — wrote and directed many films with anarchist themes, including Simple Men, a fictional tale about the children of an anarchist on the run from the law.
• Judith Malina — actress who was an integral part of the "Living Theater" with her husband Julian Beck. Noted for playing "Grandma" in the Addams Family movie (1991); she recently played "Grammy" in "Snow Days" (2001). Other notable films for Malina include Awakenings (1990), Radio Days (1987) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

See also

• Anarchist symbolism

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anarchism and the arts", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki