A mural by Cliff Rowe (Photo: Amanda Squire)
This is a must‑see exhibition that displays the work of a group of socially committed artists appalled by the rise of Hitler and the spread of fascism.
The artists formed Artists International just months after Adolph Hitler’s 1933 ascent to power.
It championed the “Unity of artists for peace, democracy and cultural development”.
The group later changed its name to Artists International Association (AIA).
It went on to attract more than 1,000 artists to contribute works to both its permanent and travelling exhibitions.
The Towner Gallery exhibition displays a wonderful selection of explicitly anti‑Nazi works by young, socialist artists.
Much of the work was influenced by the explosion in artistic forms and techniques that grew out of the Russian Revolution.
James Fitton, for instance, was a working class artist from Oldham, Manchester. He went on to produce cartoons and posters. Illustrations and lithographs of working class life by Margaret Fitton, his wife, are also shown.
James also formed a “triple alliance” with fellow artists James Holland and the great cartoonist James Boswell. Their work, much of it from a collective diary that ridiculed the absurdities of 1930s Britain, is on display.
The artists commitment to socialism and hatred of capitalism is evident in much of the work.
The exhibition also includes great pieces by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Nash, Laura Knight, Lucien Pissarro and Eric Ravilious.
Many of them were moved by the call to back the republicans’ battle in the Spanish Civil War and the events leading to the Second World War.
Works made during that war, and the post-war period, are on display.
They include an array of fine sculptures and a fabulous wall of drawings.
The AIA’s association with the Festival of Britain, whose 75th anniversary has just been celebrated, is also on show.
- Comrades in Art is on show at Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ, open till 18 October
- Find more information here
