The year 2017 was a good one for Mexico's proletarian art. Stephanie J. Smith's The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico appeared alongside John Lear's Picturing the Proletariat: Artists and Labor in Revolutionary Mexico, 1908–1940 (University of Texas Press). While Smith's book is the subject of this review, her fine narrative account of the generative but contentious relationship between Mexican artists and the Partido Comunista Mexicano (Mexican Communist Party, PCM) complements Lear's equally fine chronicle of how these artists imaged the worker during the same period. Whereas Lear's book is copiously illustrated, Smith's focuses on the lives of artists who were aligned with (if not always members of) the PCM from 1917 through to the 1940s. Each author advances discussion of the opportunities and constraints women experienced on the Left, and reading either will renew appreciation for the reciprocal relationship between politics and art in post-revolutionary Mexico. Where Smith's book is particularly useful, however, is in providing a highly readable and synthetic overview of this complex relationship, while also bringing together information from histories of labour and women's movements, biographies and art historical monographs, which until now have rarely been put into conversation.
Smith's discussion is organised into five roughly chronological chapters with an introduction and an epilogue. Her introduction argues for the centrality of the PCM to post-revolutionary culture, something she thinks has been underplayed in histories that emphasise the role of the state. Chapter 1 sets the stage with a focus on the 1920s, tracing the founding of the PCM, the creation of the Sindicato de Obreros, Técnicos, Pintores y Escultores and its organ, El Machete. This chapter also reveals that David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera will be central protagonists throughout, as their expulsion from the PCM establishes both the prospects and the perils posed by both the state and fellow communists for artists seeking to put their work in the service of radical politics. In this, Smith is aided by her archival work, particularly the information gleaned from the many reports filed by anonymous state agents who had infiltrated leftist circles.
Chapter 2 introduces the theme of gender, situating the work and life of communist photographer Tina Modotti within the context of debates over the ‘woman question’ in the PCM. Smith establishes the active role women played within the party structure, focusing on women's organisations and advocacy and their vexed relationship with state-sponsored women's groups. She also shows that, despite progressive attempts to reform gender norms in both family and state structures, the PCM also betrayed conventional attitudes towards women, limiting their mobility and frequently sanctioning their sex lives. This played out in especially tragic ways for Modotti, whose growing commitment to communism and affair with Cuban radical Julio Antonio Mella forced her into exile, poverty and an early death.
Chapter 3 explores the ‘Trotsky affair’ in detail, from his refuge to his assassination in Mexico. Smith illuminates the virulent international opposition of Stalinists to Trotsky while chronicling his activities and precarious life in exile. Once again, Rivera and Siqueiros take the stage, the former for his infamous support of the Fourth International and role in brokering the Russian militant's asylum, the latter for his participation in the first attempt on his life.
Chapter 4 returns to the theme of gender during the Cárdenas years, addressing the work of four women: Anita Brenner, Frances Toor, Frida Kahlo and Aurora Reyes. While Smith admirably weaves a story from the threads of these remarkable women's lives, this chapter begs questions as to why these four? Throughout her text, Smith acknowledges the importance of Lola Álvarez Bravo, the Greenwood sisters and Concha Michel, to name only a few. But their role in revolutionary culture is largely reduced to footnotes. One could argue that Kahlo is over-exposed, but Brenner and especially Reyes and Toor have received less serious scholarly attention. Smith's chapter, thereby, offers a welcome opening to further study, while also revealing how much work needs to be done. Reyes, in particular, merits more interest for both her activism and her art.
Chapter 5 closes the story by chronicling the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists (Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios, LEAR) and the People's Graphic Workshop (Taller de la Gráfica Popular, TGP). Smith brings important new information to light about the LEAR, clarifying its membership, providing a chronology of its activities and tracing its demise. Her discussion of the TGP likewise provides a useful and concise timeline of its evolving principles. And while she culls important insights from prior scholars, there is less that is new here and too little discussion of its prodigious print production. As the two most international and prolific groups making anti-fascist art, the LEAR and the TGP are requisite subjects for Smith's study. Her discussion offers a useful map within which to plot Lear's more detailed analysis of their graphic work.
The epilogue concerns Rivera's and Siqueiros’ late-life reflections on their relationship with the PCM. Rivera's third, and final, bid for readmission in 1952 is contrasted with Siqueiros’ equivocation about his radical youth in the 1970s. While Siqueiros underwent periods of exile and imprisonment well into the 1950s, by the late 1960s he enjoyed the favour of both the private sector and the state under two of Mexico's most authoritarian presidents. Rivera, on the other hand, experienced consistent state support for most of his career, while being constantly at odds with the official party. However, at the end of his life he ‘came full circle’, confessing his past sins and passionately recommitting himself to Stalin. Smith speculates that his ardour may have been spurred by Kahlo's fervency, and she concludes her book with a provocative juxtaposition of Kahlo's and Siqueiros’ memorials at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, held 20 years apart. Whereas in 1954, Kahlo's coffin was draped with the communist flag despite the threat of reprisal; in 1974, the Mexican flag adorned Siqueiros’ coffin, and President Luis Echeverría stood in his honour guard. This anecdote speaks volumes about the many twists of fate that Smith chronicles across the decades of Mexico's post-revolutionary artistic and political vanguard.
