In this perceptive and polished book, Patrick Frank explores how a group of Argentine visual artists sought to express the drama of the Buenos Aires's poor during the period between the wars. The book is primarily a collective biography of the artists that formed “Los Artistas del Pueblo” (The People's Artists) from 1917 to 1935: Giullermo Facio, Adolfo Belloq, José Arato, and Abraham Vigo. “Los Artistas” rented a space in Parque Patricios, a working-class suburb of Buenos Aires, that functioned as a collective studio, discussion room, and occasional gallery. These artists also shared an ideology and sense of purpose. Most of them were either children of European immigrant workers or immigrants themselves who had obtained a summary education in the arts and developed their careers outside the Buenos Aires arts establishment. Above all, “Los Artistas” were anarchist sympathizers and militants who considered visual expression an instrument for radical change.
Frank also offers an effective aesthetic critique of their production. He establishes a correlation between selected pieces of “Los Artistas” and works of their European and US contemporaries, proving that the group borrowed heavily from Social Realism. However, Frank does not portray “Los Artistas” as mere imitators of international trends. They were certainly afar from the post-impressionist renderings of gauchos and rural landscapes that, at the time, passed as Argentine art and the cosmopolitan modernism that lured elite thinkers like Jorge Luis Borges. Instead, “Los Artistas” developed their own language out of Social Realism. In addition, the locality of the subject matter—the mestizo (mixed-race) and immigrant workers, the conventillos (slums), and the low-lying backdrop of Buenos Aires's outer neighborhoods—adds an unmistakable Argentine flavor to their art, rendering it both universal and particular.
Their favorite medium was printmaking. Woodcuts, etchings, and lithographs seemed to suit the expressive needs of a revolutionary art. In contrast to the single art object of the bourgeoisie, prints can be easily reproduced and distributed among union halls and workers’ libraries or designed to illustrate pamphlets, books, and music sheets. Furthermore, the sharp lines and economy of color highlight content over form and reach out to a public untrained in art appreciation. As one might expect, “Los Artistas” focused on a series of themes popular among the international left of the time: the squalor of the slum, the greed and vanity of the rich, the daily grind of the workers, the need for unionization and direct action, and the dire consequences of prostitution and alcoholism. Despite their predictable repertoire, “Los Artistas” stand out as both candid and powerful Argentine representatives of Social Realism.
In his analysis, Frank poses a question about the intent and audience of their art. According to testimonies collected in this book, the artists conceived of themselves as the voice and consciousness of the poor. They aimed to inspire revolutionary zeal among fellow workers by confronting them with a pictorial rendition of their own reality. To make their art available to workers, “Los Artistas” displayed their prints in halls provided by the extensive network of Socialist and Anarchist institutions. However, the fact that workers were able to see this art does not guarantee that they understood the message conceived by the artists. Frank suggests that while the spectrum of audience reaction is impossible to fathom, the working-class viewers might not have been moved by scenes that were all too familiar to them. Ironically, this art more likely inspired compassion among non-working-class viewers, as manifested in reviews published in elite publications such as the daily La Prensa and the literary magazine Martin Fierro. Frank concludes that although “Los Artistas del Pueblo” undoubtedly spoke for the people, their art did not necessarily represent the way working class people visualized their own existence.
Frank's book is recommended reading for those interested in both Latin-American cultural history and the intersection of art and labor history. Frank's narrative is vigorous and confident while his analysis of individual prints educates the layman in the subtleties of art appreciation. The book is also very informative for those interested in pre-Peronist Argentina. Several passages, such as those narrating the exchange between tango composers and the visual artists or the story of Mexican muralist David Siqueiros’ visit to Buenos Aires, are especially luminous in their depiction of the bohemia in that city between the wars. The final chapter provides glimpses of the post-1935 career of Vigo and Belloq, the two surviving members of the group, and enumerates a series of artists who continued down the path of social realism first tread by “Los Artistas.” Because the book does not advance past the Peronist period (1945–1955), we are still left to ponder the extent to which the official aesthetics of the worker-oriented Peronist government borrowed from the groundbreaking work of Facio, Belloq, Arato, and Vigo. Perhaps a future study done by Patrick Frank will address this question.
