As we slowly and collectively inch our way into 2021 and find some footing, is clear that the upcoming week will have many of us holding our breath as the transition of U.S. Presidential power is set to take place. Looking over my media feeds this week, I was especially struck by an Instagram post by the activist artist group Guerrilla Girls. Featuring an image of Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini overlaid with a quote by historian Ruth Ben-Ghia, the collaged image suggests a clear line from that moment in the 1920s to the one we are living today.
The quote reads: “Mussolini was Prime Minister of Italy for 3 years. He eroded democracy from within, but it wasn’t until his re-election was in doubt that he declared a Fascist dictatorship and incited the Blackshirts*, his violent mob of supporters.” Ben-Ghia, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (2020), sends this warning to all of us about the fragility of democracy, but it also reminded me of the significant transformations that Mussolini’s persona and use of the media sparked in one particular group of artists—the Italian Futurists.
The Guerilla Girls Instagrammed this post on January 12, 2021 in response to the continuing aftermath of the January 6th Trump-fuelled insurrection in Washington D.C.
Importantly, Mussolini could not have “declared” himself a dictator without significant control and undermining of the Italian press and its many media outlets. He achieved this through systematic disinformation campaigns, on the one hand, and the promotion and amplification of other groups (political and cultural) who appeared to align with his interests. In the case of the Italian Futurists, an artist movement grounded in revolution through the destruction of tradition, institutions, and what they called “pastism,” Mussolini found a kind of harmony with the movements glorification of war, speed, and destruction “as the highest form of modern art.” The Futurists leader, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, himself a self-declared provocateur, crafted a manifesto (ceremoniously published in Paris Le Figaro newspaper in 1909) that overlapped, whether wittingly or not, with fascist politics, arguing that “There is no longer beauty except in the struggle. No more masterpieces without an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault against the unknown forces in order to overcome them and prostrate them before men.”
In today’s language, we could argue that Marinetti was very much “on brand” with Mussolini’s political goals, and a kind of kinship emerged between the men, one that continues to challenge art historians who debate about the nature of alignment of Italian Futurism to Italian Fascism to this day. One undeniable outcome, however, was that artists learned from strongmen how to leverage their visibility and influence through the use of provocative speech and the use of the media. As Jon Mann succinctly argues in his overview of Futurism, “Marinetti’s public braggadocio—and his manipulation of and engagement with the mass media—changed the way artists conceived of their relationship to the art world and popular culture.” This is what I couldn’t stop thinking about this week. Who might be the Marinetti of the art world in the years to come, and will an art movement align and grow with Trumpism?
*as an aside, there was an anti-racism group in my province, British Columbia, that proclaimed this past January 15th as “Black Shirt Day.” I wonder if the organizers understand the unfortunate symbolism and history they are evoking with that choice—a point of conversation in a couple of my classes this week.
A few more things before the round up:
Walter Scott’s graphic novel series Wendy Master of Art.
Canadian Art Instagrammed cover art from Walter Scott’s graphic novel series Wendy Master of Art (2020), and I immediately hunted down a copy and wanted to share this with those of you who can best relate. The publisher’s vivid description reads: “Wendy is an aspiring contemporary artist whose adventures have taken her to galleries, art openings, and parties in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Toronto. In Wendy, Master of Art, Walter Scott’s sly wit and social commentary zero in on MFA culture as our hero decides to hunker down and complete a master of fine arts at the University of Hell in small-town Ontario. Finally Wendy has space to refine her artistic practice, but in this calm, all of her unresolved insecurities and fears explode at full volume, usually while hungover. What is the post-Jungian object as symbol? Will she ever understand her course reading, or herself? What if she’s just not smart enough? As she develops as an artist and a person, Wendy also finds herself in a teaching position, mentoring a perpetually sobbing grade-grubbing undergrad.
One of my Sunday morning rituals is making buttermilk pancakes and watching Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on CNN. His weekly fresh takes on global politics has always helped ground my own thinking about what is happening around the world. Zakaria recently published a powerful book that he wrote while in quarantine this past year called Ten Lessons For A Post-Pandemic World (2020). I have just started reading it and cannot put it down! I have also provided a link to an interview he did on the New York Times Book Review podcast that is both excellent and insightful. You can find that in the round up below— enjoy the links!
