One might ask what led an anarchist artist such as Ivan Aguéli to produce his final paintings depicting the gentle landscape of the Penedès, while living between L’Hospitalet and Barcelona in 1917. His stay in Catalonia, following an extensive journey through Sweden, France, England, Egypt and India, was presumably connected to his revolutionary activities, which were closely aligned with the interests of Solidaridad Obrera and the CNT. He had been expelled from Egypt for opposing British colonial interests and found a final refuge in Spain before being struck and killed by a train in L’Hospitalet in October 1917. He was a painter fascinated by the Nordic esotericism of Swedenborg, the son of a veterinary surgeon who converted to animalism; a revolutionary anarchist spirit influenced by his visit to Kropotkin, he was one of the first Europeans to undertake a serious study of Sufism in Egypt. As evidence of his revolutionary action and romantic commitment, on 4 June 1900, together with his anarchist companion Marie Hout, he fired shots at a bullfighting troupe in a bullring north of Paris. Only one banderillero sustained minor injuries, allowing him to avoid a longer sentence. This incident brought bullfighting activities in France to a halt until 1951.
Given this entire spiritual and libertarian background, why did anarchist artists devote themselves to painting landscapes or melancholic portraits inspired by Cézanne? We should positively assess the significance of the early anti-bourgeois character of anarchist principles in the evolution of an art conceived through the demolition of the old, in what may be regarded as a destructive, iconoclastic poetics. Like Aguéli, one begins as a schoolboy struggling to fit in, associating with anarchist sympathisers such as Félix Fénéon or Alfred Jarry, and ends up being commemorated on an official Swedish postage stamp. In Barcelona, he continues to be overlooked, just as he was during the years of the Great War, when Duchamp, Picabia and Picasso were all in the city, each in their own way adopting attitudes decidedly close to the destructive spirit that challenged respectable bourgeois values, in connection with the transformation of the arts through libertarian principles.
There is undoubtedly an interest in demonstrating the influence of anarchism on the modernising ideals of the avant-garde. From an anarchist perspective, the influence of Max Stirner, Mallarmé’s support for aesthetic renewal, its expansion across America and Europe, and Ernst Bloch’s utopian vision all bear witness to the rebellion that has been pursued by the avant-garde, from its beginnings to the present day, inspired by anarchy. While Mallarmé’s position, in which he considers a book to be the only bomb, is well known, it is worth noting that Valle-Inclán would go on to write Rosa de llamas and advocate a new form of religiosity, as proposed by anarchism, at a grave moment such as the attempted assassination of the monarchy by Mateo Morral. Another libertarian avant-garde figure, Joan Salvat-Papasseit, would also publish Humo de fábrica (1918). Contemporary historical studies have their clearest antecedent in Lily Litvak’s La mirada roja (1988), devoted to the relationship between art and anarchist aesthetics from 1880 to 1913. Its central themes demonstrate, first and foremost, the influence of anarchist principles, which advocated an art with a clear social purpose. On the other hand, it emphasises the central role played by new mass communication media in the technological renewal of artistic practices. This study would be complemented by Arturo Ángel Madrigal Pascual’s Arte y compromiso. España 1917-1936, bringing renewed attention to the limited interest that anarchist principles have received in the evolution of Spanish art.
Contemporary approaches linked to the influence of anarchism as a universalist aesthetic proposition are significant, as it has shaped many of the principles implicit in the avant-garde’s innovative character. With regard to the revolutionary orientation of modernity, Didi-Huberman has incorporated these ideas relating to rebellion, which lie at the heart of contemporary artistic practices (Desear desobedecer). Furthermore, the interest in revitalising studies on the relationship between art and anarchist principles can be understood within the framework of the various approaches recently put forward by Catherine Malabou and Catherine Perret within French academic thought.
A true virtual athenaeum can be found in the archives of Solidaridad Obrera, where translations of avant-garde art books are all available. The Centre Federica Montseny also provides access to numerous valuable archives that offer insight into the role art played in positioning itself within anarchist aesthetics. Likewise, the Fundación Anselmo Lorenzo houses an extensive archive where many documents can be consulted, demonstrating the continued relevance of numerous libertarian principles. This was exemplified by the exhibition organised by Democracia at its headquarters, entitled Los colores de la anarquía, which was devoted to the use and exploration of the many documents held in its archive.
What remains today of the anarchist rebellion? Its sustained questioning lies at the heart of the aspirations of artistic practices that can still expose the contradictions of the institutional cultural sphere. Its influence has been noted in the possibility of continuing to operate on the margins, dissolving operational hierarchies through equal participation and advocating an inherently libertarian form of creation. If, alongside this shared perspective, emphasis is also placed on the use of mass reproduction media, we enter a space of artistic activism that is inseparable from its condition of modernity. The relationship between art and anarchy is an experience of dismantling established values, as befits an artistic action that may encompass seemingly gentle practices, such as a Symbolist landscape; realist practices, such as those of artists who chose to intervene in society; or those of artists who explored mass communication media. Within this critical perspective, which remains relevant to contemporary practices, anarchy endures as a creative utopia, continuing to exert its influence today as one of the modern movements most incisive in its questioning of the current global order.