Art Against Fascism, Then and Now
Louis Bury’s review of Andy Friend’s Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism, 1933–1943 reminds us that artists in the 1930s and ’40s did not simply observe political collapse from the sidelines — they organised. The Artists International Association (AIA), founded by figures such as Pearl Binder, Clifford Rowe, and James Boswell, emerged from the wreckage of the Depression. With working-class roots and socialist commitments, its members saw art as inseparable from social struggle. They staged exhibitions, produced affordable prints, and brought art into everyday spaces — even installing shows in the London Underground — to make culture accessible and collective rather than the preserve of elites.
The AIA’s resistance to fascism was both ideological and practical. Ideologically, the group’s slogan “Conservative in art and radical in politics” rejected the myth of the solitary artistic genius, instead affirming solidarity and shared purpose. Practically, their exhibitions — even those disrupted by the Blitz — insisted that art would not be silenced by authoritarian violence. They resisted by insisting on normalcy, on continuity, and on the human right to beauty in the darkest times.
This collective, social realist ethos fell outside the canon of 20th-century modernism, which celebrated formal innovation and individual celebrity. As a result, the AIA has been overlooked, even though many leading artists of the period were involved. Friend’s group biography re-centres these overlooked histories, reminding us that art can serve as both cultural enjoyment and political alarm bell — “the bell on the fire engine,” as co-founder James Fitton put it.
Looking back from today, the AIA’s dilemmas echo uncomfortably with our own. The rise of authoritarian populism, scapegoating politics, and what some describe as “tech fascism” — where surveillance, platform capitalism, and algorithmic control limit cultural freedom — raises the question of how artists might again resist. Just as the AIA used collective exhibitions, prints, and popular forms to democratise art against the forces of fascism, artists now experiment with open-source tools, counter-surveillance technologies, and collaborative digital practices to push back against concentrated technological power. The lesson is less about aesthetic style and more about collective orientation: the refusal to leave culture at the mercy of capital and control.
Reference
Bury, L. (2025) ‘How artists resisted fascism a century ago’, Art in America, 19 September. Available at: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/artists-resisted-fascism-comrades-in-art-andy-friend-1234752655/(Accessed: 20 September 2025).