Ari Tu Expose

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John Heartfield, whose forks were produced and rosted up all over Germany, emains virtually unknown in his country. The few studies hat have been devoted to rim. (notably by Tretyakov ind John Berger) are now out if print and his name appears 0OKS. 'experts" would have come as no This forced exclusion by the art lurprise to Heartfield who shunned Ine exhibition halls and devoted his Energies to deriding the ruling class, army officers and the church while krousing the German workers to the fascist danger.

He would have been totally ¡issatisfied with any of his bonstructions if they hadn't been adolent of the violence, cruelty ind degraded sexuality he saw all around him. • The retrospective of his work on kow at the ICA in London till the 15 September is therefore a welcome and timely attempt to acquaint people with a portion of his enormous output.

Born in 1891, Hearttield soon howed himself to be a talented unconventional artist. The Dada movement which had sprung a in Zurich in 1916 found fertile round in Berlin where, disillusioned by formal art education in Munich, Heartfield settled after the Although nihilist and simply pontent to poke fun at bourgeois Future, Dada art did begin to Assume a political role during the German revolution, having turned to the Soviet Union for ideological direction and to discover there new artistic forms that had blossomed boli of the October Revolution.

DER SINN DES HITLERGRUSSES: zer Mann bittet un 190 19 29r "Millions Stand Behind Me"

This period had a decisive inuence on both the form and locatent of Heartfield's work: he ladopted more realistic styles and consciously focused on social and political events. To these ends he developed the technique of photo'catage: aggressive creations of o=posite pictures from several Factographs.

juxtaposing seemingly ur elated images he was able, as Mat Ernsi said, "to make the ora :apresented play the role of The pratomontages he produced ste desired for mass circulation 2=:. ared the German PErs • KPD: = 1919. === 25 1:ont = = = Sagerma ---• -- - -I÷A Review of an exhibition of work by John Heartfield, on show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, until September 15.

April 1932, Heartfield's purpose is crystal clear.

He not only shows Hitler's rhetoric as feeding on the interests of capital but, by portraying him as puny shouldered and bird-like shatters the edifice the fascists had built up around the cult of his personality and his superhuman powers.

This work was, like all the others, so carefully and patiently built that the parts still retain their original, real appearance yet when viewed in situ illustrate not objects but forces and symbols.

By transposing popular fascist slogans. in this way he was able to demystify and expose them.

His "Millions Stand Behind Me" -one of his most famous creations - uses photomontage at its most effective.

BANKER

The "Millions" no longer signify people but bank notes, the people are transformed into one obese bourgeois banker who stands not "behind" but above Hitler, and the fascist salute becomes no more than a begging hand.

To spend an hour in this exhibition is to relive the years of the collapse of the Weimar Republic and to witness the rise of fascism and the detea: of the Sparish Repuritans But chose = i:: :3:E:00::=

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Introducing the new Draft of the 'British Road to Socialism',_Commu ist Party General Secretary Gordon Maclennan found himself picking around to try • and show a line of historical continuity:

"Harry Pollitt, in his book looking Ahead, written in 1947, and published by the Communist Party, already put forward many of the ideas on which our policy and programme is based in the chapter of that book "The British Road to Socialism'."

Of course MacLennan was careful to omit any details of the book he quotes from. It is now InA THE FIRST PART I JF A THREE-PART SERIES OF I THE ISSUES UNDERLYING THE RECENT SPLIT IN THE BRIT ISH COMMUNIST PARTY.

By Tony Richardson.

PETE attacked by Ordzharitte dismissed the nght io *:me scrap of paper"

The responsibility for this a: was laid on Stalin by Lenin. " asked Trotsky to undertake defence of the Georgia case in party CC.

These were the last actions Lenin before he died. All of ti centred on a joint fight r Trotksy against bureaucratism.

SIMILARITY There was similarity between Lenin's approach to problem of bureaucracy in Be Fewer But Better-a booklet 1922 initially suppressed by St -and Trotsky's approach in New Course written in 1924.

After Lenin's death it fell Trotsky to carry through this fi Stalin joined at first Kamenev and Zinoviev aga Trotsky, and this triumvi ensured that Lenin's Testament suppressed.

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only as a footnote in most popular "History of Art"