Art, Anti-fascism, and the Evolution of a “Propaganda of the Imagination”: The Artists International Association 1933–1945

The artist and art educator Nan Young man recalling the 1939 Art for the People exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London said ‘we wanted everyone to use their art, whatever it was, in a political way.’ In the fight against the growing threat of fascism in the 1930s artists in Britain became increasingly concerned with producing art or curating exhibitions which presented a strong and radical challenge to fascist ideology. This agenda was also linked to desire to reach out to audiences beyond those of the metropolitan centre and in the late 1930s and 1940s anti-fascist art exhibitions toured to regional museums, civic centres, factories, and barracks. This essay identifies and documents the rationale, content, participants, impact and interconnectedness of exhibitions in late 1930s and early 1940s Britain that confronted the threat of fascism, including Artists against Fascism (1935), Guernica (1938), and For Liberty (1943) and in particular map the evolution of a “propaganda of the imagination” whereby through direct engagement with art and artists the public would look closely, rather than look away and become an advocate for the arts and progressivism.