Breton, Rivera & Trotsky, “Towards a Revolutionary Art”
- Civilization attacked by reactionary forces with modern technological warfare
- Discoveries happen by chance and by necessity
- The progressive degradation of art and the artist unless serving the ruling regime
- True art is unable to not be revolutionary
- Only social revolution can sweep the path clean for a new culture
- The USSR is hostile to any forms of spirituality
- Artists and writers contribute to discrediting and overthrowing regimes
- The role of the artist in a decadent capitalist society is determined by the conflict between the individual and various social forms which are hostile toward him.
- The artist as a natural ally of revolution
- Art is a means to itself
- “The first condition of the freedom of the press is that it is not a business activity.”
- There must be no authoritarian interference with artists so they may carry out their tasks
- “the supreme task of art in our epoch is to take part actively and consciously in the preparation of the revolution”
- Out of desperation the artist is drawn toward the regime but cannot remain there due to the demands imposed on him
- “every progressive tendency in art is destroyed by fascism as ‘degenerate’”
Rivera, “The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art”
- Art is a social creation.
- There is no proletariat art
- No class can produce a class art until it has reached its zenith
- The art of the future will be communist
- “The social struggle is the richest, the most intense and the most plastic subject an artist can choose.”
- The artist is a direct product of life.
- “the importance of an artist can be measured directly by the size of the multitudes whose aspiration and whose life he serves to condense and translate”
- “art for art’s sake” implies that only the superior few can appreciate it and therefore it’s value is assigned accordingly
- The proletariat must take art as a weapon in the revolutionary struggle
- The proletariat must struggle on 2 fronts: prevent the creation of bourgeoisie art and create its own proletariat art
- The proletariats must become artists from within
- The art of the proletariat has to be an art that is warm and clear and strong.
- Peasant art as the art of the people
- Mural art is the most significant art for the proletariat
- The easel picture is an object of luxury
- The Bourgeoisie does not want art employed for the sake of revolution
Siqueiros, “Towards a Transformation of the Plastic Arts”
- The Paris movement and the Mexican movement are disintegrating today.
- Art which will be physically capable of serving the public through its material form
- The use of all the modern tools and materials
- Art movements always develop in accordance with the technical possibilities of their age.
- Polygraphic art that will combine both plastic and graphic art
- Must use new, dialectic forms
- Dynamic graphic art in tune with the dynamism of the world
- Art must have a real scientific basis
- Exterior mural painting instead of advertisements
- Tradition is an accumulation of experiences on which work must be based
Siqueiros, “A Declaration of Social, Political and Aesthetic Principles”
- The art of the Mexican people is the most wholesome spiritual expression in the world and the greatest treasure
- Rejection of any painting favored by ultra-intellectual circles
- Praise of the monument since it is accessible to all
- Artist must use best efforts to produce ideological works of art for the people
