Comrades in art: meet the artists who fought against fascism

"A chaotic scene of protesters clashing with police in London's Trafalgar Square graces the dust jacket of this book. Demonstrators are shown being clubbed to the ground as railings are torn up for weapons and an officer on a rearing white horse prepares to strike. Painted by Cliff Rowe while he was staying in Soviet Russia, the monumental social realist canvas captures with vivid dynamism the civil unrest sparked in 1932 by the British government's sweeping benefit cuts."

"It was against a backdrop of economic hardship, unemployment, class struggle and rising political extremism that Rowe, having returned to London in 1933, became instrumental in establishing the Artists International Association (AIA)-a radical union of artists, which grew to become a popular front against fascism and war, and whose first decade the author and curator Andy Friend chronicles here with scholarly rigour and narrative verve."

"Just a dozen or so men and women, mostly underemployed commercial artists associated with the Communist Party, attended the AIA's first candle-lit meeting. Among them were Misha Black, James Boswell, James Lucas, James Fitton and Pearl Binder who, like Rowe, had spent time in Russia. Binder recounted enthusiastically how, in Soviet society, artists were supported, organised and suitably employed, sometimes sponsored by trade unions or the Red Army."

A monumental social realist painting by Cliff Rowe depicts protesters clashing with police in Trafalgar Square during 1932 unrest over benefit cuts. Economic hardship, unemployment, class struggle and rising political extremism shaped the period and influenced artists returning from Soviet Russia. Cliff Rowe and peers helped establish the Artists International Association (AIA) in 1933 as a radical union of largely underemployed commercial artists aligned with the Communist Party. The AIA aimed to serve shared political goals through art, oppose fascism and war, and organize artists into a popular front. Early membership included artists who had experienced Soviet support for artists and sought collective solutions to precarious conditions.

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