Block'- a look at art in society

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and seek to perpetuate this into a 'socialist' future: whereas the revolutionary, in art as in every other sphere, must begin from the "bad new things'-from the actual forces and relations of a disintegrating capitalism.

This was Benjamin's achievement: that he saw in the very fragmentation of advanced capitalist society the seeds of a revolutionary culture. itself can become the basis of a 'revolutionary' form of perception.

The artistic technique of 'montage'-the connecting of dissimilar images to shock an audience into new recognition-is one example of this, in the films of Eisenstein, the theatre of Brecht. or the anti-fascisi photo-montage' of the German designer John Heartfield.

It would be a mistake to think that Benjamin is no more than a 'cultural' critic.

His meditations on the relationship between tradition' and 'modernity' are relevant not only to art but to the whole matter of what Marxism means by history.

Orthodox

The 'orthodox' idea of history which Benjamin confronted was the crude evolutionism of German social democracy —history as convey or-belt moving smoothly onwards to deliver socialism at some indefinite point in the future.

Against this, Benjamin opposed revolutionary concept of historyalthough one deeply entwined with his Jewish mystical heritage.

The revolutionary working class, he wrote, is nourished not by dreams of liberated grandchildren, but by memories of enslaved ancestors; and the problem of history was thus the problem of how to bring the past to bear on the present, in a moment of revolutionary shock and submitted to a materialist critique.

But his dialectical uniting of tradition and modernity, idealist as it is, is nevertheless powerfully suggestive. Tradition must be preserved; but it can be preserved only by violence and struggle.

Impact

In every age, Benjamin writes, the tradition must be wrested free from the conformity which threatens to overwhelm it; and this can be done only by submitting it to the 'deadly impact of new thoughts' The revolutionary class must vigilantly preserve the whole of its history, as the traditional story-teller preserves the consciousness of his society, or as the individual collector 'rescues' items of the past which others may discard (Benjamin was himself an obsessional collector.

But it will only be on the other side of revolution that the class will be able to receive the fullness of its past' , rewrite its own history and so tell its own story.

Unity

Benjamin was as conscious of how easily the Walter Benjamin past is fetishised as he was of how quickly it can be erased. What he sought was some dialectical unity beyond both possibilities.

Unless such a unity was found, not even the dead, he warned, would be safe trom fascism. For fascism is the final, brutal obliteration of history; socialism 1 1s the violent resurrection of history in the service of the present and future.

Benjamin's thinking was seriousły distorted by idealism and dogged by a brooding melancholy: one of his favourite slogans was that of the writer Romain Rolland, Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will' Victim But as a hounded victim of fascism, he did after all have much to be melancholic about; and though his work needs to be submitted to the deadly impact of new thoughts' , it is a gain that fascism was not after all able to erase it.

When Bertolt Brecht heard of his sucide on the Spanish frontier, he commented that this was the first serious loss Hitler had managed to inflict on German literature.

Art journals come and with the ebb and flow artistic movements.

Efforts by artists and other petty bourgeois intellectuals to involve themselves in the living struggles of the working class are not new. On the contrary, post war art history is littered by "the wreckage of such attempts.

'Block' is one of the latest of these attempts. Describing itself as la journal devoted to the theory, analysis and criticism of art, design and the mass media' it fills a gap in British artistic life.

Serious

It gives the impression in its first issue of being a generally serious attempt to deal with the problems faced by the artist who seeks to relate art directly to a role in society.

Socialist Press readers will find stimulating reading in 'Block', , despite the fact that the authors do not yet (?) have any clear political, line as a group.

All of them can be said to have a definitely left position on a range of questions, although often this is focussed almost entirely on matters of art theory which require considerable study.

One of the most interesting and accessible articles is by Tony Rickaby on "The Artists' International" ; a grouping in Britain created in the early 1930s, influenced by the Communist Party.

Rickaby's account brings out many of the problems of the relationship between the intellectuals and the CP in the 30s, and some more general aspects.

The extraordinary willingness of a whole generation of intellectuals to follow the CP loyally through its political somersaults between the wars is vividly depicted.

Relationship

It is not until this depressing picture is clear that today's reader can understand the full significance of Trotsky's efforts' to build different forms of political relationship with leading artists such as Rivera and Breton.

The picture is fleshed out • a short biographical article on James Boswell, one of the founders of the Al and a CP member. Illustrations from Boswell's work confirm the impression of the enormous talents which fell under the influence of Stalinism and were doomed never to achieve their full potential.

Pioneering

The case of Anthony Blunt is another tragic example; very few of the commentators on his case mention his pioneering efforts to introduce Marxist art criticism to Britain.

Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson present an interesting piece on theory and practice, focussing on their work in East London with trades councils and the Bethnal Green Hospital campaign.

There are many artists prepared to involve themselves with community struggles, but few of them are able to subject their experience to theoretical examination in the way that Dunn and Leeson are.

'Block' also reproduces the works excluded by the Arts Council from the exhibition 'Lives' last summer.

Conrad Atkinson's print was designed to be included with a presentation set for the Queen Mother, prepared by teachers at the Slade School.

It depicts the Distillers Company range of products purchased by the Royal family, and prominently displayed among them a package of the deforming drug thalidomide which Distillers sold.

The accompanying text by Atkinson documents the rising profits of Distillers and their refusal to compensate many of the damaged children.

The other work saved from censorship by 'Block' is a series of drawings by Fony Rickaby called Fascades'. Again the work succeeds through the contradiction of a bland image with the savage reality revealed by the text.

Rickaby presents drawings of the facades of the numerous right wing bodies that infest London, and describes the activities of the organisations in an attached text.