Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.

org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

Mark Antliff
'Aestheticism' of the Action d'art Group,
1906-1920
Cubism, Futurism, Anarcnism:
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

1. This article u based on research undertaken
at the International Institute of Social History in
Amsterdam and the Bibliotheque Nationale in
Paris; I am grateful to the staff of those
institutions for their help. Thanks go to
Matthew Affron, Allan Antliff, and Patricia
Leighten for their comments and suggestions.
2. For a synoptic overview of the Artistocratic
movement, see Florian Parmentier, La Uttaaiurt
SiJ'Epoaue. Histoirz de la Liaerature Frarxplxe de 1885
a oosjours (Figuiere: Pans, 1913), pp 224—31.
3. Between 1907 and 1920 the 'comrades of
Action d'art' collaborated on a number of
journals devoted to the theme of Artistocracy
La Foire am chimera (1907—08), La Acta du
pokes (1908-11), La Forge (1911), U Rhjthme
(1911-12), and L'Aaion d'an (1913, 1919-20)
being chief among them. After World War
One, Emilc Armand and Lacaze-Duthicr
continued to propagate Artistocratic anarchism
in the journal L'En dehon (1922-39), which
Armand declared to be 'un organe de realisation
individualize anarchiste'. For example, see
Emilc Armand, 'Ressurection1, L'En dehon, 13
May 1922, p. i, and Lacaze Duthier, 'En
Mediocratie', L'En dehon, no 6, February 1923,
pp. 1-2.
4. For a lengthy discussion of the Bergsonian
dimension of Artistocratic theory, and the
relation of that movement to Futurism and Neo-
Symbolism, set: Mark Anthff, Inventing Bergson-
Cultural Pohtia and the Parisian Aram-Garde
(Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1993),
pp. 135-67.
5. Robyn Roslak, "The Politics of Aesthetic
Harmony Neo-lmpressionlsm, Science, and
Anarchism', Art Bulletin, September 1991,
pp. 381-90
6. For an overview of Neo-impressionist
Utopian imagery, see Roslak, 'Organicism and
the Construction of an Utopian Geography',
Utopian Studies, Vol. 1, no. 2 1990, pp. 9 6 -
114; and John Hutton, Neo~lmpressionism and the
Search Jot Solid Ground: Art, Science, and Anarchism
In Fin-de-Sicclc France (Louisiana State University
Press: Baton Rouge, 1994), pp. 128-48. For
cogent discussions of the anarchist import of
Camille Pissarro's images of peasants, see
Robert Herbert, 'City vs. Country: The Rural
Image in French painting from Millet to
Gauguin', Anjorum, February 1970, pp. 44—55;
and Paul Smith, Impressionism: Beneath the Surface,
(Abrams: New York, 1995), pp. 113-43.
Cubism, Futurism, Anarchism: The 'Aestheticism' of
the Action d'art Group, 1906-1920
Mark Antllff
The question of how art and politics interrelate is a vexing one: this is
particularly true when one considers various attempts in pre-World War I
France to forge a rapprochement between the aesthetic and the political.
Perhaps the most understudied group to develop such a synthesis were the
anarcho-individualist artists and writers associated with the doctrine of
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
'Artistocracy', first propounded in 1906 by the anarcho-individualist Gerard
de Lacaze-Duthier in his book L'Ideal Humain de l'Art.2 Joined by artists and
critics, Lacaze-Duthier succeeded in founding a number of literary venues
promoting the Artistocratic creed, the most significant of which was the
journal L'Actwn d'art, founded in 1913.3 Although VAction d'art appeared
intermittently, ceasing publication after 1913 and only reappearing in 1919,
the journal forged a link between anarchists and some of the most significant
literary and artistic figures of the day, including Neo-Symbolists associated
with Vers et prose (1905—14) such as Paul Fort and Guillaume Apollinaire; the
Futurists Ugo Giannattasio and Gino Severini; the Cubist Albert Gleizes, and
Atl (Gerardo Murillo), later the leader of the Mexican Muralist movement.
The Aristocrats' adaptation of the theories of the philosopher Henri Bergson
to their anarchist doctrine won them the support of Bergsonians wimin the
Neo-Symbolist and Futurist milieux. Thus avant-garde aesthetics and
aestheticized politics were conjoined under the banner of Artistocratie; this
paper will examine the complex history behind that synthesis.4
The Artistocratic association of avant-gardism, aestheticism, and anarchism
charted here runs counter to standard histories of the era, for an alliance of this
type is widely thought to have reached its zenith before 1900, when the Neo-
Impressionists justified their aesthetic precepts on the basis of the anarcho-
communism of Petr Kropotkin, Elisee Reclus and Jean Grave. As Robyn
Roslak has demonstrated, the Neo-Impressionists drew parallels between the
aesthetic harmony achieved through their contrast of complimentary colours
and die social harmony that would arise in a society governed by Kropotkin's
anarcho-communist doctrine of mutual aid. In paintings such as Camille
Pissarro's Apple Tickers, Eraany (1888) or Paul Signac's In Times of Harmony
(1895—96), the aesthetic harmony encoded in Neo-impressionist technique
had a counterpart in representations meant to approximate an agrarian Utopia,
composed of self-sufficient anarchist communes. It is commonly held that the
fin-de-siecle demise of anarcho-communism signalled the death knell for any
alliance between avant-garde artists and anarchists. With the founding of the
syndicalist Confederation Generale du Travail in 1900 and the Parti Socialisu in
1905, theories of class consciousness and strike action came to dominate leftist
discourse. Anarcho-syndicalist and socialist organizations, argues John Hutton,
'rejected the notion of the anarcho-communists that the golden age would
arrive through the natural evolution of society'; instead change would only
occur 'through concerted human action'. Arguing that forging a new class
consciousness was the motor of revolution, the anarcho-syndicalists contested
the Neo-Impressionists' disavowal of class in the name of individual freedom.
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 9 9 - 1 2 0
Mark Antliff
But more importantly, according to Hutton, anarcho-syndicalism 'opened up
the possibility of a new source and patronage for art, as well as a new
audience: the workers in their unions and local party organizations'. As a
result the anarcho-communists and their modernist sympathizers reportedly
lost much of their support among the working class after 190S.
Far from signalling the end of any alliance between anarchists and
modernists, die decline of anarcho-communism and rise of anarcho-
syndicalism led modernists to embrace a diird type of anarchism, namely,
die anarcho-individualism promoted by groups like the Artistocrats.9 Based on
die dieories of Oscar Wilde, Max Stimer and Nietzsche,10 anarcho-
individualism took one of two forms: die armed violence of reprise individuelle
or a metaphorical revolt against social conventions in favour of individual self-
expression. In die former instance die anarcho-individualist adopted an
'illegalist' posture and challenged society dirough symbolic acts of violence,
such as Auguste Vaillant's famous bombing of the Chamber of Deputies in
1893. In die latter case individual protest was restricted to a revolt against
bourgeois norms, a stance diat led to die aestheticization of politics, wherein
acts diat departed from social norms were declared beautiful by virtue of tiieir
compatibility witii personal desires. Indeed reprise individuelle and aesdieticized
politics were frequently conjoined in die mind of anarcho-individualists: hence
Laurent Tailhade's famous justification of Vaillant's bombing on die basis of
die 'beauty' of diis gesture of individualist affirmation." After die turn of die
century that syndiesis was broached again, but diis time in die art of Pablo
Picasso, whose aestiietic innovations were compared to Vaillant's propagande
par le fait by anarchist sympatiiizers like Andre Salmon and Guilliaume
Apollinaire. Anarchism also inspired die Fauvist Maurice Vlaminck who hoped
'to burn down die Ecole des Beaux Arts' witii his 'colbalts and vermillions'.12
Thus die aesdieticization of politics remained a key component of anarchist
rhetoric long after reprise individuelle had been abandoned as a viable mode of
anarchist protest. With the birth of die Artistocratic movement in 1906,
anarcho-individualism won over new recruits from die Neo-Symbolist,
Futurist and Cubist movements.
Why did Artistocratic dieory in particular appeal to die modernists? In part
its attraction stemmed from die Artistocrats' aesdieticization of politics and
disavowal of die class-based precepts of anarcho-syndicalism. In part it resided
in die Artistocrats' correlation of aestiietic innovation witii individualist revolt,
a syndiesis commonly deployed by critics in defence of modernist painting.
Thus while die Artistocrats, like many modernists, clearly saw tiiemselves as
an elite vanguard of radical consciousness, die psychological ratiier dian purely
economic foundation of diat radicalism meant diat die artistocrats could
recruit allies from artistic bohemia as well as from die working class.
Concurrently, diey defined their enemy, die bourgeoisie, in psychological as
well as economic terms. Bourgeois mentality was overly intellectualized diey
charged, following Bergson, and was dius in opposition to die intuitive
creativity of die Artistocrat. Moreover aldiough the Artistocrats rejected
anarcho-communism, diey nevertheless developed a dieory of collectivity on
die basis of a Bergsonian notion of intersubjectivity. These anarcho-
individualists argued diat notions of collectivity and individualism were not
mutually exclusive, a position diat resulted in cooperative ventures such as die
creation of die Theatre d'Action d'art. The involvement of die Bergsonian
Futurists Severini and Giannattasio in the dieatre project in turn testifies to its
historical importance. However, diere were Artistocrats who were prepared
to challenge die modernists on economic and political grounds. For anarchists
1 0 2 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998
7. According to John Hutton the syndicalist
movement emphasized 'the growth of new
collective labor and activity of workers as a
distinct class in society, rather dun the decision
of each individual to embrace die ideals of
anarcho-communism'. See Hutton, 'The Blow
of the Pick: Sdence, Anarchism, and the Neo-
Impressionlst Movement', Ph.D. diss.,
Northwestern University, 1987, p. 338 and
Hutton, Neo-lmpressicmism and the Search for Solid
Ground, pp. 209—18. In a recent book on
Pissarro, Martha Ward has taken a more
nuanced approach, arguing that the Neo-
lmpressionists, under Signac'j leadership,
adjusted their imagery to die syndicalist cause.
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
Works such as Signac's lithograph Les
Dimollssturs (1896) reportedly indicated 'Signac'i
endorsement of a more active and aggressive
notion of public art'. See Martha Ward, Pissarro,
Neo-lmpressionhm, and the Spaces of the Avant-Garde
(University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1995),
pp. 235-40.
8. Hutton, Neo-impressionism and the Search JOT
Solid Ground, p. 218.
9. On the anarcho-individualist circles after
1900, lee Richard Sonn, Anarchlnn S^Cultural
Politics in Fin-de-dede France (University of
Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1989);
Patricia Leighten, He-Ordering the Universe- Picasso
and Anarchism, 1897-1914 (Princeton University
Press. Princeton, 1989); Joan Halperin, Filli
Pinion- Aesthete and Anarchist in Fin-de-siecle Paris
(Yale University Press: New Haven and London,
1988); and Richard Parry, 77K Bonnot Gang
(Rebel Press: London, 1987). The most resilient
journals propounding anarcho-individualism after
1900 included VAnarchic (1905-1914), founded
by Llbertad, and VEn dehars (1922-1939),
edited by Errule Armand
10. On anarcho-individualism, sec Hutton,
Nco-lmpressionism and the Search Jor Solid Ground,
pp. 54—9; and Antliff, Inventing Bergson,
pp. 143-47.
1 1. Sonn, Anarchism St_Cultural Politics, p. 257.
12. On Picasso see Leighten, Re-Ordering the
Universe, chapters 3 and 4; for Vlaminck's
association of anarchism with his Fauve
aesthetic, see Maurice Vlaminck, Tovmant
dangereus: souvenirs de ma vie (Ubrairie Stock:
Paris, 1929), trans. M. Rois, Dangerous Comer
(Elek Books: London, 1961), pp.11-2.

13. Gerard Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'Artistocratie',
L'lda Libre, October 1912, pp. 153-5. Unless
otherwise noted all translations are my own.
14. Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'ArUstocratie',
pp. 153-55.
15. Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'Art', L'Aalon d'an, 15
March 1913, p. 4.
16. Lacaze-Duthier, 'Mediocrade,
Artistocratie', L'Aaion d'an, 15 February 1913,
P ••
The 'Aestherjcism'of the Action d'an Group
like Atl and Lacaze-Duthier, the Cubists' and Futurists' involvement in
commercial galleries and state-sanctioned salons was proof of the falseness of
their aesthetic convictions. Their opinions differed markedly from that of
Andre Colomer, an artistocrat who found the Bergsonian aesthetics of the
Cubists' and Futurists' compatible with Artistocratie theory. Giannattasio and
Severini were well aware of such scrutiny; how they responded to this
Artistocratie debate is worth examining. To properly understand that debate
we must begin by studying the aestheticized critique of capitalism developed
by the movement's founder, Gerard de Lacaze-Duthier.
Aestheticized Politics
This dimension of Action d'art politics permeated a series of articles written
by Lacaze-Duthier. In 'L'Artistocratie' and related articles in L'Aaion d'an,
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
Lacaze-Duthier distinguished between the 'mediocratie' of parliamentary
democracy and the 'artistocratie' of anarcho-individualism.13 The democratic
system had an aesthetic analogue in the 'ugliness' of acts motivated by political
or economic gain, as opposed to those acts that were the product of one's need
to express oneself in an individual and thus 'beautiful' manner. Predictably,
bourgeois culture, politics, and social conventions are deemed ugly, while acts
of revolt against the mercantile bases of such culture are labeled artistic. In
'our epoch of ugliness and decadence', Lacaze-Duthier laments, the public
focuses on 'the noise of politicians', on the 'pettiness and egoism' that is the
result of their desire for personal gain. Moreover, since they contribute
nothing to the 'nobility' or 'heroism' of humanity, they try to identify
themselves with such grandeur by becoming patrons of the arts. However,
'there are heroisms superior to all recompence', and since politicians, like the
bourgeoisie, can only judge a work by its monetary value, they only reward
artists who have succeeded on the art market. They are unable to discern
which works embody the creative essence of a given era. That creative force is
in the gestures of those who are 'disinterested', the artists and thinkers who
reject base or material motives and therefore place no value on the material
awards proffered by the state or the sale of paintings at the salon. Thus
material gain has no role to play in motivating artistic creation, and true artists
are immune to the 'egoisme des mediocres', 'the honours of the state', or the
'applause of the crowd'. 'Their recompences are in themselves, and not in
success.' In his analysis of what constitutes bourgeois as opposed to
Artistocratie art, Lacaze-Duthier focuses on those institutions which, to his
mind, act to impede self-expression and ally art production to the money
economy. On this basis the Artistocrat rejects art promoted within state
academies, the gallery system, or that developed by 'the coterie of
independants' who belong to the alternative salons.1
Three interrelated themes pervade Lacaze-Duthier's criticism: distinctions
between bourgeois and Artistocratie forms of art, an aestheticization of
politics, and a vitalist definition of the Artistocratie state of mind. While he
dismisses academicism and anti-academic art on material grounds for catering
to the economic interests of the state or the art market, academics are also
critiqued on the basis of a vitalist theory of artistic expression. 'We break widi
the stupid art of academies' proclaims Lacaze-Duthier, because 'they represent
inaction and impotence; they destroy, by pretending to conserve that which
exists, for they only retain, from tradition, from evolution, waste; that which
is living and positive is misunderstood and condemned by them.' 16 Academies
'distort tradition' by identifying it with the slavish imitation of the art of the
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 103
Mark AntlifT

past; an Artistocrat, in embracing the 'living and positive', adheres to tradition

by emulating its novelty. As the product of genius, art is the product of
individual creativity; 'to copy' the products of such genius 'is to distort 17. Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'Art', p. 4.
them'. 17 At the heart of Lacaze-Duthier's definition of true art is a correlation 18. Lacaze-Duthier, 'Medjocratie,
between creativity and novelty. 'Life is an unending creation', and because art Artistocratic', L'Aaloa d'an, 1 February 1913,
is a form of creation it is as novel as life itself. Those who side with beauty thus p. 4.
side with life and reject 'the classifications which mutilate life, the arbitrary 19. For a detailed discussion of Colomer's
categories which restrain its elan'.'8 relation to Bergson, see AntlifT, Inventing
Bergsoo, pp. 136—55.
This correlation between artistic creation and a vital elan derives from the
20. Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'ArOstocrade', pp. 153-
Bergsonian criticism of fellow Artistocrat Andre Colomer, who declared 5.
artistic creation to be the product of the Aristocrats' intuitive experience of 21. For a full discussion of the anarchist import
the elan vital. Like Lacaze-Duthier, he thought artistic activity synonymous of these statements by Apollinaire and Picasso,
with a revolt against societal norms, while the 'utilitarian' and 'mercantile' see Leighten, Re-Ordering the Unlrene, chapters 3
and 4.
motivations were manifestations of an 'intellectual' impediment to the

Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

intuitive elan vital of each creative individual. To assess an object or activity on 22. Gujlliaume Apollinaire, The Cubist Painters:
Aesthetic Meditations (Figulere: Pans, 1913),
the basis of its monetary value alone robbed it of its qualitative significance, trans Lionel Abel (George Wittenbom Inc.:
just as the uniqueness of an experience or thing would be lost if each were New York, 1970), p 23; for a discussion of the
treated as interchangeable with another, as it was when its value was measured anarchist valences of Apollinaire's criticism, sec
Leighten, Hz-Ordering the Unlrene, pp. 53-63.
in coin. Colomer cited Bergson in this regard, noting that die philosopher
identified such normative and homogenizing criteria of evaluation with an
intellectual radier than intuitive point of view. For Bergson, an intellectual
perspective robs experience of its qualitative import and fails to recognize that
life, like art, is the product of creative activity. In sum, Colomer gave Lacaze-
Duthier's anarchism epistemological weight by aligning the Artistocratic revolt
with what was then the most powerful critique of materialism in France.19

Anarchism and Avant-Gardism

Since artistic tradition is composed of successive radical innovations, the
Artistocrat emulates tradition by being as radically innovative as past artists.
'The true tradition', states Lacaze-Duthier, 'is a tradition of revolt and
emancipation. The tradition we represent is the tradition of free ideas. Every
idea is revolutionary. . . . Of past art, all that which had been new, all which
was opposed to prejudice and habit, is our tradition.' According to Lacaze-
Duthier, 'it is by building that we destroy', for 'genius edifies and constructs
without cease, and it is by affirming the reality of the ideal that it ruins the
agitation of mediocraties'. 'Creation', therefore, 'follows its course in the
midst of ugliness and its errors.' 20 The creative artist is everywhere confronted
by a society that shuns novelty and embraces an academic art that conforms to
state-sanctioned bourgeois values.
This correlation between creativity and novelty and identification of
aesthetic vanguardism with revolutionary change is a paradigm that pervades
Cubist-related art criticism. When Apollinaire called upon artists to 'innovate
violently' or Picasso proclaimed his art to be 'a sum of destructions', both
artist and poet related Cubism's departure from academic convention to the
Nietzschean creation of new social values.21 In his book Les Peintres cubistes
(1913), Apollinaire described Picasso as 'new-bom', a protean creator who
'orders the universe in accordance with his requirements'.22 Like Lacaze-
Duthier and Andre Colomer, he identified artistic novelty with a new way of
thinking and a concomitant break from a bourgeois order allied to an imitative
and thus 'impotent' academicism. This Nietzschean vocabulary, which wedded
the transformation of accepted norms and values with an individualist revolt
against bourgeois convention, was also shared by the Cubists Albert Gleizes

104 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998


23. For a thorough study of the Nietzschean
precepts of Gleizes' and Metzinger's Cubism,
see John Nash, 'The Nature of Cubism: A Study
of Conflicting Explanations', Art History,
December 1980, pp. 436-47.
24. Albert Glebes, 'L'Art et scs Representants:
Jean Metzinger', Rerut Indtpendantc (September
1911), pp. 171-2
25. Gleizes and Metzinger, Du Cubism (1912),
trans. R. L. Herbert, Modem Artists on Art
(Prentice-Hall: Englewood CUffs, NJ, 1964),
pp. 6-7.
26. Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'Art', p. 4.
27. See 'A Notre librarie', L'Action d'art, no. 9,
25 July 1913, p. 4. We should not, however,
assume that the Cubists subscribed to all of the
tenets of anarcho-individualism; indeed, as I
have shown elsewhere, Gleizes and his Neo-
Symbolist circle were affiliated wirh an
organization that drew upon anarcho-syndicalist
and radical republican ideology in its advocacy
of a theory of Celtic nationalism. See the
chapter titled 'The Body of the Nation:
Cubism's Celtic Nationalism', in Antli/f,
Inrtntlng Bergson, pp 106-34.
28. Colomcr, who was incarcerated for his
refusal to serve in World War One, openly
declared his pacifism in the first edition of the
revived journal; subsequently he sought to
revive his contacts with the Cubists, whom he
still regarded as revolutionary by virtue of their
aesthetic innovations and their affiliation with
the Unanimist poetj, a group that shared
Colomcr'* pacifist principles. Among Colomer's
collaborators in the post—war journal was die
war veteran Marcel Sauvage, whose poetry
conveyed his frontline experiences, and the
Unanimist Georges Duhamel. See Andre
Colomer, 'L'Action d'art renait', L'Aaion d'art,
15 October 1919, pp. 1-2. This opening
number of L'Aaion d'art (p. 8) also announced
diat 'une chronique des Livres et des Revues
sera tenuc a partir du prochain numcro', which
would include 'une rubnque: Les expositions
d'art avee la collaboration d'Albert Gleizes,
Feluc Courche, J-P Dubray, et La-vollee'.
Although the pacifist Gleizes failed to contribute
to the )oumal, his projected collaboration
nevertheless attests to the shared political
interests uniting Colomer and dus Cubist. In a
March 1920 review of the Salon des
Independants, long time Artistocrat Rene
Dessambre praised the work of the Cubists for
'donnant une vie, une harmonic, une
magnificence de synthese'; and d>e following
issue Included an article by Georges Duthuit on
the Cubist La Section d'or exhibition, held in
Paris m March 1920. See Rene Dessambre,
'Aux Independants', L'Aaion d'art, 12 March
1920, pp. 7-8; and Georges Dudiuit, 'La
Section d'or', L'Aaion d'art, 22 May 1920,
pp. 6—7. On the pacifism of the Unanimlsts, as
well as poets like Sauvage, see Nancy Sloan
Goldberg, 'French Pacifist Poetry of World War
The 'AesthetiasrrTof the Action d'art Group
and Jean Metzinger, though they were more reticent about the anarchist
import of such ideas.23 Gleizes ended a 1911 essay on Metzinger by praising
him as one 'who gives us so many new values' that he inspires a 'ferocious
opposition' on the part of those artists and critics 'unable to create'. 4 In their
joint publication, Du Cubisme (1912), Gleizes and Metzinger went one step
further by separating themselves from their public on the basis of the latter's
lack of creativity. 'Comprehension', state Gleizes and Metzinger in Du
Cubisme, cannot 'evolve as rapidly as the creative faculties' with the result that
the public 'long remains the slave of the painted image, and persists in seeing
the world only through the adopted sign'. An artist's role, therefore, is to
impose new perceptual conventions on this public by creating 'a symbol likely
to affect others'. To Gleizes' and Metzinger's mind such persuasion can be
accomplished if the artistic innovations of previous generations are recast after
dieir own creative responses.25 Lacaze-Duthier professed similar sentiments
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
when he noted that 'original works have against them the rationalist spirit of
the public' which 'bursts out laughing before a work it does not understand'.
Furthermore, since Bergson described all creative acts as heterogeneous and
unrepeatable, Gleizes, Metzinger, and the Artistocrat Colomer were quick to
declare aesthetic imitation antithetical to the creative impulse and thus
untenable as a mode of artistic production. Similarily, Lacaze-Duthier's
reference to the 'rationalist spirit' governing the hostile public alludes to
Bergson's distinction between the rational and intuitive, which Colomer
employed in his separation of the bourgeois and Artistocratic state of mind.
For the Artistocrat and the Cubist, any aesthetic identified with the 'rational' is
condemned as antithetical to the creative intuition they wish to promote. In
short, the Artistocratic correlation of creativity with novelty echoed the
vocabulary of artists and critics in the Cubist camp, and it should come as no
surprise to leam that Apollinaire's Les Peintres cubistes and Gleizes and
Metzinger's Du Cubisme were both sold in the Action d'art bookstore. Indeed,
Andre Colomer declared these texts to be amenable to the Artistocrats'
'individualist and anarchically idealist tendancies'.27 Following the revival of
[.'Action d'art in 1919, Colomer continued to view Cubism in a favorable light,
linking his anarchist pacifism to that of the Unanimists and their Cubist allies,
publishing articles on Cubist exhibitions, and even winning over the pacifist
Albert Gleizes, who was projected to write a regular column on art for the
journal.28
That endorsement, however, also came with some serious reservations,
indicative of a general schism within Artistocratic ranks over the merits of the
modernists. In the criticism of Lacaze-Duthier those doubts took the form of a
condemnation of those who embrace a 'pretext of novelty' antithetical to
Artistocratic 'originality'. Such pretext was found among the 'independants',
those artists exhibiting in the Salon des Independants who invariably formed a
'coterie' and presented the public with 'the extravagant and the bizarre' in
'the name of originality'. Since the public lacks 'aesthetic consciousness' it is
susceptible to such 'bluff and incoherence'.29 Although Lacaze-Duthier does
not name the Cubists, his extension of this critique to encompass all artists
associated with the Societe des artistes independants suggests that he regarded the
Fauvist, Cubist, and Futurist movements as mere attempts at self-promotion
on the part of the modernists. Unlike Colomer, he doubted the sincerity of
these artists because he thought their art to be little more than an
advertisement, designed to attract attention and thus increase sales.
'Commerce and art preclude each other', states Lacaze-Duthier; 'to make a
painting to sell it, this is to be the proletarian of financiers and merchants'.
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 105
Mark AntlifT

Those artists who reject Academic methods only to declare themselves part of
some new.'bizarre' tendancy 'conceive art as a field for politics . . . for them it
is a business deal' promoted through 'advertising and hoax'. Since the art of One', Journal of European Ideas, December 1991,
the salon is commercialized, the novelty of Cubist or Futurist form is pp. 239-58.
presumably nothing more than a publicity stunt, lacking the serious intentions 29. Lacaze-Duthicr, 'L'Art', p. 4.
of the Artistocrat.31 Rather than follow Colomer in his correlation of 30. Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'Art', p. 4.
Artistocratic and Cubist avant-gardism, Lacaze-Duthier claimed that the 31. Although Lacaze-Duthier did profess
commercialism of the latter group made their vanguardism a mere hoax, sympathy for literary members of the Neo-
devoid of any anarchist credibility. Since Colomer's support of the modernists Symbolist movement, he seernj to have
regarded their Cubljt and Futurist confreres
was premised on his Bergsonian aesthetics, Lacaze-Duthier was quick to with di5dain. Lacaze-Duthier endorsed the Neo-
distance himself from those philosophic assumptions, claiming that Colomer Symbolist practise of publicly declaring a 'Prince
had developed his Bergsonian theory independantly.32 of Poets' or 'Prince of Story Tellers' as a
method of drawing the public's attention to
serious art, rather than condemning the practice
as a mere publicity stunt. Perhaps he was

Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

The Politics of Sexual Liberation swayed in this regard by die election of fellow
anarcho-indlvidualist and L'Aaion d'art associate
Perhaps the most important aspect of Lacaze-Duthier's criticism was his Han Ryner as 'Prince des Conteun' in 1913.
attempt to define a social role for the Artistocrat, to distinguish his theory Paul Fort, the official 'Pnnce of Poets' also
participated in L'Aaton d'an events, as we shall
from one that would cast the artist in the role of an elitist esthete. In the see below. See Lacaze-Duthier, 'Reflections sur
process, he surprisingly allied his doctrine to the theories of Oscar Wilde, la Litterature', L'Action d'art, 15 April 1913,
whose ideas were fundamental to the Action d'art project. Both Wilde and p. 4.
Lacaze-Duthier regarded the artistic point of view as synonymous with an 32. See Lacaze-Duthier, Yen l'anlstocratie
individualism that actively rebels against social norms and is autonomous from (Editions L'Action d'art: Pans, 1913), pp 6-7.
all influence outside of one's personal need for self-expression. Although 33. Oscar Wilde, 'The Soul of Man under
Wilde legendarily exemplifies an apolitical 'art for arts sake' position, his 'Soul Socialism', in Richard Elbnann (ed.) The Artist as
Critic: Critical Writings of (hear Wide (University
of Man under Socialism' (1891) expressly identified the artistic point of view of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1969), p 257
with social revolt. In Wilde's view all individuals have the potential to develop
into artists, provided they possess the material means to free themselves from
utilitarian concerns. Moreover he claimed that 'the form of government which
best suits the artist is the absence of all government' and planned to replace the
state with voluntary association, based on a spirit of cooperation rather than
competition. 'By converting private property into public wealth, and
substituting cooperation for competition [we] will restore society to its
proper condition of a thoroughly happy organism, and insure the material
well-being of each member of the community.'3 Like Lacaze-Duthier, Wilde
thought that every individual should be able to live like an artist, whose sole
purpose in life is to create beauty. However, Wilde differed from Lacaze-
Duthier in his description of the means by which such goals could be realized.
For Wilde, the creation of a society of artists could be achieved if one did away
with private ownership and let all members of society share material goods
equally. In this manner each individual would be able to adopt the
'disinterested' attitude of the artist who can afford to ignore life's 'utilitarian'
concerns. Lacaze-Duthier too thought that artistic creation should be divorced
from material need, but he provided no concrete social program for the
realization of this schism. Thus Lacaze-Duthier called upon artists to abandon
state patronage or the salon system without suggesting an alternative means of
substinence beyond that outlined by Wilde. Wilde thought the redistribution
of wealth a prerequisite for the creation of an anarchist society; by contrast the
members of the Action d'art collective asserted that each individual simply had
first to adopt the psychological attitude of the Artistocrat to realize a social
revolution.
For Lacaze-Duthier that attitude was synonymous with a state of
psychological and physiological 'equilibrium' or 'harmony' that in turn
produced a desire to share this experience with others. An Artistocrat's life is

1 0 6 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998


34. Lacaze-Duthier, 'Mediocratie,
Artiitocratie', L'Aaion d'Ait, February 1913,
p. 4
35. Lacaze-Duthier, 'L'lndividualisme esthetkrue
et L'Artistocratie', L'Aalon d'An, 10 Sept 1913,
p. 2.
36. Lacaze-Duthier, 'Reflexions sur la
Utteraturc', L'Aaion d'An, 25 June 1913, p. 8.
37. Ad, 'Encore un attentat a la Liberte de
I'Art', L'Aalon d'An, 25 July 1913, p. 2.
38. Ad, 'Notre Protestation en Faveur du
Monument Oscar Wilde', L'Aalon d'An, 10 May
1913, pp. 3—4 The journal sold texts on free
love, abortion and feminism in its book store,
including titles such as Madeleine Pelletier's Lt
dioit a l'aronement and Madeleine Vemet's
L'Amour llbre. L'Aaion d'An was not the first
anarchist journal to defend Wilde in terms of
sexual liberation, for the anarchist sympathizer
Edward Carpenter had defended Wilde on
similar grounds in the anarchist magazine
Freedom in July 1895. For a discussion of the
Importance of sexual liberation in English
anarchist circles, see Hermia Olivier, 77ie
International Anarchist Morement In Late Vtaorian
London (St. Martins Press: New York, 1983),
pp. 141—6; on the sexual politics of Carpenter
see Linda D. Henderson, 'Mysticism as the "Tie
That Binds": The case of Edward Carpenter and
Modernism', An Journal, Spring 1987, pp. 29-
37; and Sheila Rowbotham, ' "Commanding the
Heart"- Edward Carpenter and Friends', History
Today, September 1987, pp 41-6.
39. Atl, 'Les edits Delanney', L'Aaion d'An, 15
March 1913, p. 3.
40. Atl, 'Pour la Liberte de I'Art: Protestation
a propos du Monument Oscar Wilde. Notre
Petition', L'Aalon d'An, 15 April 1913, p. 1.
The 'Aestheticism'of the Action d'an Group
beautiful, because she or he is 'a being free of all dogma, possessing his own
law, his own morality, sole master of his destiny, creating his life harmoniously
such as he believes it, managing to equilibrate all his passions and all his ideas,
and to rejuvenate and renew himself through his incessant action'. In this
manner the Artistocrat will not only grasp the 'profound meaning' of life, but
through action, reveal this meaning to all: 'such is the task of the writer, of the
artist'.34 Elsewhere psychological equilibrium is given its literary correlate in
'lyricism' since it alone 'realizes the equilibrium, the beauty, the justice in the
work' as well as 'the equilibrium of the form and the idea'. The life of the
Artistocrat therefore is like 'a harmonious poem', motivated by 'love'. As a
result aristocratic activity 'does not pass unnoticed', for 'his enthusiasm, his
sympathy, gradually modifies his environment'. 5 'Contact with poets renews
life in us', and 'we become conscious of ourselves' if we 'imitate the poets
who only listen to the voice of inspiration'. In this manner Lacaze-Duthier
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
separates art-for-art's-sake elitism from his conception of the Artistocrat,
noting that the latter does not shun the public, but actively seeks to set an
example for others through the beauty and elan of his or her activity.
The theory outlined above was applied by L'Action d'art in a protest campaign
against government censorship. In 1912, the State condemnation of Jacob
Epstein's monumental Oscar Wilde Tomb for its supposed obscenity became a
rallying point for the Artistocrats's opposition to the Third Republic (Fig. 1).
The Wilde Tomb was the subject of controversy because of the public declaration,
on the part of the Prefecture de Police and an official 'Comite d'esthetique',
that the winged figure on the tomb was offensive by reason of its highly legible
genitals. In a series of articles, L'Aaion d'art's art critic, Atl, defended the Wilde
monument in the name of Artistocratic principles developed by his colleagues.
Thus Atl employed Lacaze-Duthier's correlation between the Artistocratic
temperament and physiological 'equilibrium' in his defence of the sexual
content of the statue, noting that anyone 'in full possession of his sexual
equilibrium cannot be offended before the symbol of virility'. Atl related his
protest to the work of other artists, taking note that the 'Commission de
sculpture du Salon de la Societe Rationale des Beaux Arts' had suppressed the
exhibition of the work of sculptor Geo Duthiel on similar grounds.37 By
declaring the government's prohibition against the monument the product of
'pathology' and an insult 'to the simple dignity of the healthy man', the Action
d'art compagnons turned the tables on the Comite d'esthetique, calling into
question its own sexual and psychological health. This attack must have been all
the more satisfying since the committee was composed of important artists of
the Ecole des Beaux Arts and members of the Institut, the very defenders of the
state-sanctioned art Lacaze-Duthier condemned as morally corrupt and
artistically 'impotent'. Atl and his colleagues declared the tomb to be one of
those 'free and harmonious manifestations of aesthetic individualism', fully in
keeping with the anarchist philosophy of Wilde himself.38 Thus as part of their
campaign they published extracts from Wilde's 'Soul of Man under Socialism',
noting that they not only sought to defend 'the work of a sculptor threatened by
the governmental arbiter', but 'to affirm their admiration for the beautiful poet
who died in misery, tracked down by all the social forces . . . the most ardent of
individualists'. The Action d'art collective then brought their case to the
public with a petition protesting state censorship and defending 'the principle of
liberty itself in art' (Fig. 1). By reproducing an image of the sculpture, they
hoped to apprise the public of the sculpture's actual appearance and make plain
the underlying homophobic and antisexual prejudice that motivated the state's
case.
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 107
Mark Antlifl"

Monument du poete Oscar Wilde

Par EPSTEIN

. Upii Ocucn imSn. m OattUn fa Hn-Udula (69*~ iMics, p*« *• ***

Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

Cc bas-rcJlcf fut expoti i LondrcJ nrx regards d o pba purttibu ct nc ftoukva ujcunc protertirJon; or, depute.
Km .rrivtc u r Ic rcrritotrc dt ta RtpubBquc. II e»t. pmtt-U. d t r a u un objet de »andWe.
En tcptcmbrc 1911, Ic prcTcl dc police Interdit IWugumkwl dc cc momnncnt. comkfcit per U comme
offenunt pour b monk pablkruc. ,
DcrnJcruoent, k 10 fCrrler. iprti n t l du CtmiH falUHfmt M I* frifttbm dt la Stim. — compote dc
M M DCJMOCV preftt de )• Stint, prfridtm: AubmeJ. «ccrfe»rre gtacrW. Ttcc-preildcnt: Lorlcax a Akxmdre.
lrapcaeirr. BtoinoK d o ponli ct d n u M c o ; P u a l ct Ninot, mcabra dc rinjtrhit, h»pc4aciir» d a btrhoenti d»lb :
Jen-Paul Unrcm el Oibrtc) Fctrkr. pe*itte«. roanbecs dc I'lnftttut; Onrlej Grrmult. iichUccte. •cnujn dc lln»-
tmn • Dcnyj Pucch. ln(»lbcrt et Aotooin McrcK. Kulptem, •Kmbra dc i'lmrttut; SebocnlielM. rrapecttur gtatnl
de» monurotnn hWorlquej : B<mbi». Dcnrcr. Duroon*. bwiniero d a m i o nunirficturej: BoUein, «TC«tcctc(:
A h » c u r inckn enrrcpreneuT dc rrmrsux publla: Botnnrd. drrcrtprr hooonlre de h prerccrurc : GilD. prtlMent du
conieJJ niurilcrpj • D H K K I . president da cowiH ia bmdga: Chtriom, prejkknt dt h rroblimc commlMlOT ds
coojcil onmkiMj tntreproicBT dt I m w pubBa; MUhouird. v)ct-pr«idc« dc It coanunlon du Vkux-Pirto ;
d'Aodlsrrf conjciBcr municipal: ct Georgo C«ln. coMcrnteordu MuV< Cannnlet. — Ic prefet ivtn Ic rcprtKntnt
londonkn du comltt O»cmr Wilde, devoir k rautDcr I'onmx du uiraifTC Ep»«n — «micllcmcnt d i m Ic Sad
AfrtaJn — fiute de quo! II b ftnot d a e d k r m fnto. rijepes et perfl. d a ayum droH.
Artc Ic moraimcnt 0 « o r VIUc. c o t Ic prlndpc mttiodt b Rbcrtc d m 1'irt qu) e»t mencc. Poor ctttt
Ubcrte. Chirlo B»udel.lrc Gujttvt Fbubcrt. Otnllt Mcrrftl. Jem Rlcbcpln. Pnd Ad«m, Ludca D u c n a ,
Ctnrlo-Hcnry Hlr«*. Stctaka. P o r t o . Loul. Ugnmd. VlDcflt. Poulbol. Grradjcnnn. Dttemoy, etc.. nont p »
crsJnt d'lffronlcr ks'riprtHT* dc» loll.
Tjr, m a u u / u u J<- fa pH/rclmie ami«» . i j " / ^ P"^ / ' j r '' " • a K a""'"* a <i> i<'/>W <<< fbcmmt taht.
Nou> >wxu d'aillcurs demonire (rolr Tactiom Sari du 1' ran 191)) qoe k« nuntci. k j pbcc> pnbfiquo
et Ici cRfiit* pullnknl d'uuvro «utremcnt rialhte*.
Lcs penKUn. ks m n i o el k» <crhrili« « doivtnl dt deTtndTC lcnr» drain, ct I B - J O U O de lcur» droio
leur Ideal dc liberty. Ncm> compl.m. done H « « « » lltndrom 4 <)Kr«r notrt pilllloo pour qut k montODcnl O^or
WlWe « * rtipecte\

L E S C O M P A G N O N S D E L A C T I O N D - ART

Fig. 1. Les Compagnons de L'Action d'art, 'Broadsheet defending the Oscar Wilde Tomb', 1913.

108 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998


41. Ahbough Picasso did not sign the petition,
be too w u aware of the scandal, for he met
Epstein on numerous occasions during the
latter's sojourns to Paris between June and
November 1912. Picasso's reluctance to defend
Epstein's monument publically may in part have
been due to his desire as a foreigner to keep a
low public profile following his involvement,
along with Apollinaire, in the scandal of 1911
over two Iberian sculptures stolen from the
Louvre by Apollinaire's 'secretary', Gery Pieret,
a deserter from the Belgian army: Apolhnaire's
and Pieret's status as foreigners led to
xenophobic condemnations of the avant-garde in
the press. On the 1911 scandal and Picasso's
familiarity with Epstein see, Peter Read, Picasso
a. Apolllniare. La metamorphoses de la mhnoirc
(Editions Jean-Mkhel Place. Paris, 1995),
pp. 69-74 and 153—6; and Leighten, Rc-Ordcring
the Universe, pp. 70 and 80.
42. Atl, 'Pour la Liberte de l'Art', p. 1.
43. The London distributor for the journal was
an organisation called 'Groupe d'Etudes
Sooalcs', 19 Mannett Street and Charing Cross
Road, London; see 'Les Correspondents de
1'Action d'Art', L'Actlon d'An, 10 May 1913,
p. 4.
44. For a summation of the impact of Stimer on
these journals and their avant-garde associates
among the literary 'Imagists' and 'Vortidsts' see
Michael J. Levenson, A Genealogy of Modernism- A
Studj of English literary Doctrine, 1908-1922
(Cambridge University Press: Cambridge,
1984), pp 63-79, Bruce Clarke, 'Dora
Marsden and Ezra Pound: The New Freewoman
and "The Serious Artist" ', Contemporary
Literature, vol. 33, no. 1, 1992, pp. 91-112;
and Lisa Tickner, 'Now and Then: the Hieratic
Head of Ezra Pound', Oxford An Journal, vol.
16, no. 2, 1993, pp. 55—61. 77K New Freewoman
was the precursor of 77K Egoist, and both
journals carried advertisements for the sale of
Max Stimer's Der Einzige und seia Eigenthurn
(1845), translated as 77K Ego and Its Own. As
Bruce Clarke has convincingly argued, the editor
of both journals, Dora Marsden, was an avid
anarcho-individualist, who Interpreted feminism
and Imagist poetry in light of Max Stimer's
egoism. Marsden also had a lasting impact of
Ezra Pound, who defended Vorticism in egoistic
terms 'as a movement of individuals' in 77K
Egoist. See Ezra Pound, 'Edward Wadsworth,
Vorticist', 77K Egoist, 15 August 1914, pp. 306-
7. The Wilde monument was defended in much
the same terms by Horace Holly in the pages of
77K New Freewoaxm. Holly described the
condemnation of Wilde in the name of
'immorality, insanity' as 'the worlds' oldest and
handiest weapons' against those who would
venture beyond 'the consciousness of the middle
class*. Likewise the correlation of homosexuality
with a 'healthy pathology' was a position
advocated by Havelock Ellis and Edward
Carpenter, two writers who had a profound
impact on 77K New Freewoman and 77* Egoist. See
The 'Aesthetiasm'of the Action d'art Group
The' success of their campaign can be measured by the list of respondents,
contained in the 15 April 1913 issue. Among those who declared themselves
'pour liberte de l'art' was a virtual cross-section of the Parisian modernists,
including the writers Apollinaire, Paul Fort, Max Jacob, Olivier-Hourcade,
Louis Mandin, Jean Muller, and Alexandre Mercereau. All these figures were
associated with the Neo-Symbolist movement; moreover prominent Cubists
supported the protest, most notably Alexander Archipenko, Gleizes, Pierre
Dumont, Francis Picabia, and Felix-Elie Tobeen.41 The list of signatories even
included luminaries from abroad, such as the secretary general of London's
Allied Artists Association, and the likes of Wyndham Lewis, William Roberts,
Charles Ginner, and Spencer Gore.42 Indeed it is worth noting that [.'Action
d'art had a London distributer43 and that the correlation between sexual
liberation, anarcho-individualism, and the precepts of Max Stirner had
simultaneously been forged in England by the modernist journals New
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
Freewoman (1913) and 77ie Egoist (1914).** The modernist response to the
Artistocratic campaign attests to an awareness of the movement, and the
manner in which the Artistocrats broadened their audience. By couching their
petition in terms of freedom of expression, rather than an attack on the
commercialization of art, they were able to win the endorsement of artists and
critics who might otherwise have felt compromised by the implications of the
Artistocratic protest.
Politicising the Artistic Medium
The Wilde campaign was initiated by the Mexican Artistocrat Geraldo Murillo
(1875—1964), who took the pseudonymn Dr Atl.45 Atl was favourably
positioned to rally the Parisian modernists to Epstein's defence, for he was an
artist whom Guillaume Apollinaire openly admired as an individual with 'lofty
aims' and 'ascetic discipline'.46 Such unqualified admiration, however, was not
reciprocated, for Atl endorsed Lacaze-Duthier's critique of Cubist
commercialism. Atl's criticism in L'Action d'art focused on two major
themes, a condemnation of the commercial motive in art and the development
of an alternative aesthetic amenable to the heroic ideals of the Artistocracy. In
speaking of mercantilism, Atl followed Lacaze-Duthier in disparaging the salon
system as commercially motivated and in attacking the modernists for their
complicity in the money economy. Thus in his first essay for L'Action d'art, Atl
characterized the artist who would exhibit in the salons as 'a modest employee
of a "Company of Art Exploitation" ', before noting that the salon juries also
obey 'the commercial spirit of the company'.47 Similarly, though Atl himself
had an exhibition at the Galerie Joubert et Richebourg in May 1914, he
nevertheless claimed that a gallery's only motive in exhibiting a given artist
was to 'fill the cash box of the house'. Artists too were to be condemned for
their lack of resistance to the market, for artists generally did not exhibit
together out of mutual agreement over aesthetic ideals but in response to
market demands. He made the Artistocratic basis of this criticism explicit
when he condemned the cartoonist Willette for embracing 'mediocratie' by
virtue of his desire to achieve commercial success and 'official approval'.
Similarly, he claimed not only that the Cubists Gleizes and Metzinger were
'the victims of theories that they do not understand thoroughly',50 but that the
controversy their art elicited was no more than an 'advertisement . . .
constructed following the exigencies of the merchant'.51 However, in contrast
to Lacaze-Duthier, Atl was prepared to see some merit in the Cubist style and
to propose his own aesthetic as an alternative to the pitfalls of commercialized
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 109
Mark AntlilT
painting. Thus much of his critical energy was devoted to promoting his
painterly technique, known as Atl-colour, as an alternative to oil painting.
Echoing the earlier criticism of such conservatives as Charles Blanc, Atl
claimed that oil painting on canvas — by virtue of the fragility of the medium
and its small-scale format — was designed for individual contemplation in the
home, and thus catered to the commercial market. 2 Atl-colour on the other
hand was modelled after fresco technique and therefore tailor-made for large-
scale mural decoration of a civic sort. As Apollinaire reported in his review of
Atl's 1914 exhibition, the artist thought his mixture of wax and crayon 'a solid
derivative of the methods of the Hellenic painters' and thus amenable 'to all
kinds of surfaces — paper, canvas, fibro-cement, plaster, wood, etc'. 53 The
adaptability of the medium meant that artists could abandon oil painting and
work in settings that were divorced from the commercial market. Ideally Atl-
colour was designed for mural painting in a public square, not for private
consumption in the form of easel painting.
In his criticism for L'Action d'art, Atl repeatedly disparaged oil painting and
eulogized the decorative, large-scale frescos of Michelangelo's Sistme Ceiling.
According to Atl it was through the decorative concept alone that an artist
could achieve the 'heroic' aspirations of the Artistocrat. The 'plastic elements'
of a work should be 'the manifestation of the peculiar consciousness of the
artist'; furthermore 'it is necessary to go beyond bourgeois, ecclesiastical or
official action — social action to say it all — if one wants to arrive at the
concentration of all force of thought, of will and knowledge in a work of
beauty'.54 Artistocratic art was beautiful by virtue of its utter individuality and
complete separation from anydiing construed as 'social'. It is 'the integral
action of the self that engenders true art, and art of this type will 'harmonize
lines, colours, and volumes of a decoration with the structure of an edifice or
with the dimensions of a great idea'.55 The epic idea of the Artistocrat thus
produces a 'decorative rhythm' that can even give an easel painting the
volumetric force of a wall fresco.56 It is this volumetric quality that Atl found
admirable in the work of the Cubist Albert Gleizes.57 In his review of the Salon
des Independants, Atl singled out Gleizes' Football Players (Fig. 2) for praise
because the players 'seem to move in a space simultaneously more ample and
more in depth'. 'The opposed planes constituted with the figures' reportedly
'produces a more intense sensation' indicative of spatial magnitude. 8
Presumably Atl thought the transparent planes and cubic forms that serve to
fuse together the painting's imagery amplified its pictorial impact beyond that
usually achievable in the easel painting format. Indeed, paintings such as
Metzinger's Harbour (1911) (Fig. 3) created a sense of amplitude by combining
views that defied Euclidean perspective and even captured the curvature of the
earth's surface. This 'epic' space had its Artistocratic equivalent in the art of
Atl, who, in images such as his Luminous Silence of 1913 (Fig. 4) emulated the
curvilinear, Reimannian space created by Metzinger in his earlier Landscape
(1911—12). Although he did not combine multiple views in a single painting,
or structure space through Cezannean passage, Atl did employ mild spatial
distortions to augment our sense of spatial recession and volumetric depth.
Thus the roadside walls separating two fields in the foreground of Atl's
painting diverge dramatically as they approach us, as if we were viewing the
landscape through a fish-eye lens. This dramatic curvature has its parallel in the
curvilinear lines surrounding the sun, which give the sky a volumetric quality,
suitable to the panorama spread out below. Together, earth and sky produce a
synesthetic experience of sublime, 'luminous silence'. Although the Cubists
failed to realize the 'matte finish', 'gritty' or 'hard surface' achievable through
110 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998
Horace Holly, 'Epstein's Oscar Wilde
Monument', The New Freewoman, I July 1913,
pp. 30—1; for evidence of the impact of
Carpenter and Ellis on the politics of The New
Freewoman, see Sheila Rowbotham and Jeffry
Weeks, Socialism and the New UJe: The Personal
Politics of Edward Carpenter and Harelock Ellis
(Pluto Press: London, 1977), pp. 120-2; and
Edward Carpenter, "The Status of Women in
Early Greek Times', The New Freewoman, I
August 1913, p. 68. For evidence of the impact
of such views on Pound and Lewis, see
Levenson, A Genealogy of Modernism and chapter
two of Tom Normand, Wyndham Lewis, The Artist
(Cambridge University Press: Cambridge,
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
1992). In his The Spirit of the Ghetto, the
American anarchist Hutchins Hapgood noted
that the youthful Epstein in New York had
anarchist leanings, an orientation borne out by
his later collaboration with the self-professed
'anarcho-communist' architect Charles Holden
in the initial dejign of the Oscar Wilde Tomb.
Epstein is known to have been in Paris during
the months of May and June 1913, and in his
later autobiography he recalled his interest in
the L'Aaion d'art campaign. On Epstein's politics
before his arrival in England in 1905, see
Hutchins Hapgood, The Spirit of the Ghetto
(1902, rpt. Belkap Press: Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1967), pp. 254—71, for Holdcn's
relations to Epstein, sec Richard Cork, An
Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England
(Yale University Press: London, 1985), pp. 9 -
60, and Brian Hanson, 'Singing the Body
Electric with Charles Holden', Architectural
Review, December 1975, pp. 349-65. For
Epstein's comments on the L'Aaion d'art defence
of the tomb, see Jacob Epstein, Epstein- An
Autobiography (1955, Second Edition, Vista
Books: London, 1963), pp. 52-5; 253-4.
45. At], whose name derives from the Aztec
name for water, has been the subject of
numerous studies. See, for example, discussions
of Atl in the following texts: Laurence
Schmeckebler, Modem Mexican An (University of
Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, 1939); Jose
Clemente Orozco, Josi Cleraenu Orozco: An
Autobiography (University of Texas Press: Austin,
1962); Jean Chariot, 77K Meiican Mural
Renaissance (Yale University Press: New Haven,
1963); Maddnley Helm, Modem Mexican Painters
(Books for Libraries Press: Freeport, 1968);
Serge Fauchereau, Les Peinties ReFolutionnaires
Mezkains (Editions Messidor: Paris, 1985); and
Museo Nadonal de Arte, Dr. Ml, IS7S-I964:
conciencia y paisaje (Instituto Nadonal de Bellas
Artes: Mexico, 1985).
46. Lcroy C. Bruenig (ed.) Apollinaire oa An.
Essays and Reviews, 1902-1918 (Viking: New
York, 1972), p. 371.
47. Atl, 'Une Orientation s'impose', L'Aaion
d'An, IS February 1913, p. 2.
48. Atl, 'Forain', L'Aaion d'An, 1 March 1913,
p. 2.
49. Atl, 'Forain', p. 2.
 The 'Aesthetidsm'of the Aaion d'an Group

Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

Fig. 2. Albert Glelzes, 'Football Players', 1912-13, oil on canvas, 89 x 72 In. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Allsa Mellon Bruce Fund 1970.
(Photograph: National Gallery of Art).

OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 111

Mark Antliff

50. Atl, 'Unc Orientation s'impose', p. 2.

51. Ad, 'Le Salon d a Independants', L'Aaloa
d'An, 15 March 1913, pp. 1-2.
52. For • detailed discussion of the valorisation
of the decorative over easel painting in the
criticism of Charles Blanc, Ernest Chesneau, and
others, see Marc Gotlieb, 'From Genre to
Decoration: Studies In the Theory and Criticism
of French Salon Painting, 1850-1900', Ph.D
diss., The Johns Hopkins University, 1990,
pp. 16-115.
53 Atl quoted in Apollinaire, "The Ad
Exhibition', Paris-Journal, 4 May 1914, in

Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

Breunig, Apollinaire in An, p 372
54. Ad, 'Une Orientation s'impose', p. 2.
55. Atl, 'Une Orientation j'imposc', p. 2.
56. Atl, 'Le Salon des Independants', p. 1.
57. Atl's incorporation of Cubist volume into
his decorative project violated die precepts of
die Cubists Gleizes and Metringer, who
Fig. 3. Jean Metzlnger, 'The Harbour", 1911-12, oil on canvas. Location and dimensions unknown. emphatically separated their spatial innovations
from any notion of decoration. The critique of
Atl-colour, the Mexican Artistocrat thought their spatial innovations the decorative developed by Gleizes and
adaptable to his own intentions, and thus worthy of praise. Clearly Atl's MeCnnger in Du Cubism (1912) may account for
Ad's dismissal of dlat text in his review of the
objection to the Cubists had less to do with their technique than with their 1913 Salon des Independants. For Cubist attack]
intentions, which he allied to market forces rather than Artistocratic on the decorative, see Gleizes and Metzinger,
aspirations. When he did criticize Cubist technique it was from the standpoint Du Cubisme, pp. 4—5.
of the commercial implications of their chosen medium. Although both the 58. Atl, 'Le Salon des Independants', p 2.
Artistocrat and the Cubists hoped to transform the consciousness of their 59. For a discussion of the Cubists' usage of
audience, Atl felt alone in wanting to revolutionize the artistic medium by non-Euclidean space In works such as
abandoning oil on canvas. By creating a new technique adaptable to other Metringer's 'Landscape', see Linda D.
Henderson, 77K Fourth Dimension and Non-
contexts, he hoped to reach an audience beyond that which would attend an Euclidean Geometry in Modem An (Princeton
art exhibition. As an Artistocrat, Atl hoped to divorce art from the University Press: Princeton, 1983), pp 82-9.
commercialized format of oil on canvas, and in so doing arrive at a technique In later yean Atl turned repeatedly to the
portrayal of mountainous landscapes in which
amenable only to self-expression. In short the political aspirations that led Atl the curve of die earth's surface was quite
to condemn oil on canvas were not unlike those that inspired Picasso to invent prominent. See illustrations in Carlos Pelliccr,
collage, for both artists abandoned easel painting's traditional medium as a Dr. Ad. Plnturasj Dibujas (Mexico, 1974).

form of protest against state-sanctioned academicism.61 60. Atl quoted m Apollinaire, 'The Ad
Exhibition', p. 372.
61. On tills dimension of Picasso's aestheticized
politics, see Leighten, 'Cubist Anachronisms:
Les Forgerons: An Anarchist Salon Ahistoridty, Cryptoformallsm, and Businesj-as-
Thus far I have focused on the Artistocrats' critique of the private gallery Usual in New York', Oxford An Journal, vol. 17,
no. 2, 1994, pp. 91-102 and Francis Frasdna,
system for its corrupting effect on the Cubist movement; now I will analyse 'Realism, Ideology and the "Discursive" in
those exhibition spaces they identified as free from commercialism. As I Cubism', in Charles Harrison, Francis Frascina
previously noted Lacaze-Duthier, Atl and their Artistocratic colleagues all and Gill Perry, Primitirism, Cubism, Abstraction:
The Earlj Twentieth-Century (Yale University
concurred that the true artist is one who spurns commercial or state- Press: New Haven, 1993), pp. 163-S0.
sanctioned enterprises in order to follow the dictates of self-expression,
defined for Colomer in terms of Bergsonian intuition. Artistocrats were
instructed to avoid the public salons or art galleries, and seek non-commercial
venues in which to exhibit their work. Not surprisingly the compagnons
provided a forum for such activity in the guise of various non-profit and strictly
voluntary art organizations. As early as March, the journal announced the
formation of an art 'guild', 'Les Forgerons', whose stated purpose was 'the
elevation of people through art', by making art produced by the guild's

1 1 2 O X F O R D ART J O U R N A L 2 1 . 2 1998

62. 'Un Jeune Foyer d'Action d'Art: La Guilde
"Les Forgerons" ', L'Aakm d'Ait, 1 March
1913, p. 4.
63. 'Exposition de peinture et sculpture
organisee par la Guilde "Les Forgerons" ',
L'Aaion d'An, 28 September 1913, p. 4. The
artists exhibiting under the auspices of the Guild
included 'Anstide Delannoy, Arucet Leroy, G.
Raieter, Raphael Diligent, Jose de Treeft,
Vincent, Godeaux, Dupre, Hennion, Deshays,
Raymond, etc'.
64. On the Guild, see Paul Desanges,
'Qironique d'une communaute mihtante: Les
Forgerons (191 1—1920)', Le Mourement social,
ApriHune 1975, pp. 35-58 and Matthew
Affron, 'Waldemar George. A Parisian Art
Critic On Modernism and Fascism', in AiTron
and AntlUT(eds.), Fascist Visions- An and Ideology
in France aod Italy (Princeton University Press:
Princeton, 1997). My thanks go to Matthew
Affron for alerting me to rhe post-war history
of the Guild.
Fig. 4. All (Gerardo Murilki), 'Luminous Silence', 1913, oil on canvas. Location and dimensions unknown.
The 'Aestheticism'of the Action d'art Group
membership available for public viewing. The Artistocrats facilitated those
activities by sponsoring a number of 'Forgerons' exhibitions at the Guild's
headquarters on rue Edouard Manet, near Place d'ltalie; additionally L'Aaion
d'art launched a series of 'Conferences de la guilde "Les Forgerons"'
beginning in October of that year.63 Thus the Action d'art collective created a
non-commercial space in which artists could exhibit their work, or hold public
lectures publicising the Artistocratic cause. To promote their political ideals,
and those of the journal, members of Les Forgerons relied on comrades to buy
their works. What separated such monetary transactions from those conducted
in commercial galleries was the character of those making the exchange: in
private galleries both buyer and seller purportedly speculated on the value of a
work, whereas the buyer of a Forgcron product was assumed to be fellow
comrade, motivated by Artistocratic ideals. In fact the guild was a success, and
over the period from 1913 to 1920 the Guilde les Forgerons not only continued
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
to combine lectures with exhibitions, it created a Universite du Peuple, to insure
that the movement's anarchist ideals were properly conveyed to the urban
proletariat. Under the auspices of the revived Artistocratic journal, La Forge
(founded in 1911), post-war critics such as Waldemar George continued to
correlate the Cubist innovations of artists like Gleizes with anarchist aims.
Additionally, the Artistocrats justified their conception of an art guild as
something distinct from an anarcho-communist or anarcho-syndicalist
collective. They also sought to distinguish their endeavours from those
publicity-minded 'coteries' Lacaze-Duthier had admonished as commercially
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 113
Mark Antliff

motivated. It was Andre Colomer who defined the Artistocratic approach to

collective action in an essay delivered at a 'Forgerons' conference on 2
November 1913. Since anarcho-individualism is commonly identified with a
revolt against collectivity in whatever form, it is important that we understand
this dimension of the Action d'art programme. s
In their joint declaration, the Action d'art group called upon anarchists to
execute 'individual acts . . . integral and harmonious with their being'. This
correlation of individualism with an internal harmony of being was also a
theme in Colomer's theory, which not only tied intuitive consciousness to 'the
individualism of Stirner', but singled out musical metaphors such as harmony
as indicative of the individualist state of mind. According to Colomer,
'individual harmony' should govern one's course of action, because the
sensation of 'harmonious unity'68 alone is unfettered by society's strictures. In
Time and Free Will Bergson had referred to the soul's rhythmic, harmonic and
65. Thus in hu recent book on Neo-
Impressionism, John Hutton claims that anarcho-
communists 'argued that individual freedom
could only exist within a historically evolved
socul matrix based on cooperation and mutual
aid', while 'the other wing — die individualists —
rejected social responsibility in favour of
absolute personal freedom*. By asserting that
individualists rejected 'social responsibility' or
'social solidarity', Hutton implies that anarcho-
indivfdualism as a doctrine waj incompatible
with theories of collectivity. See Hutton, Na>-
Imprasionian and the Search JOT Solid Ground,
pp. 54-5.
66. LCJ Compagnons de PAction d'Art,

Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

melodic properties to underscore its qualitative nature; Colomer applied 'Declaration', L'Aaion d'Art, 1 February 1913,
similar terminology to Lacaze-Duthier's description of the anarcho-artistic p. 1.

temperament.6 Moreover, in an article titled 'La Bande', Colomer extended
this Bergsonian paradigm to encompass a notion of collectivity distinguishable
from that proposed by anarcho-communists, or popular notions of what
constitutes 'society'. 'In a society', we are told, 'the individual is taken into a
social organism which he was not the author of and the individual must
'accept it witii all its conditions' and become 'the slave of an anonymous
group'. While a member of a society 'is only the unconscious cell of an
organism without harmony', the Artistocratic band 'can only exist through the
conscious will of die individuals who form it'. The individuals who compose a
band 'do not seek a common ideal', rather it suffices diat diey possess 'an
intuitive sympathy diat attracts one towards die odier' for diem to achieve a
67. Having concluded that Bergsonian intuition
was directed towards discernment of the self,
Colomer states that 'L'lntuitionisme Bergsonien
semblait done rejoindrc . . . I'indJviduaJisme de
Stirner. L'intuition serait la soeur de 1'Unique'.
Andre Colomer, 'Bergson et "Lcs Jcunes Gem
d'aujourd'hui"', L'Aaion d'Art, 1 March 1913,
p. 2.
68 Colomer, 'L'Art, 1'anarchle & 1'ame
chrcUenne', L'Aaion d'An, 15 April 1913, p. 1.
69. For a fuller discussion of this aspect of
Colomer'i Bergsonian anarchism, see AntliiT,
Inventing Bergson, pp. 151—5.

condition of 'harmony'. For Colomer, as for Bergson, willed sympatiiy, or 70. Colomer, 'La Bande', L'Action d'Art, 10
November 1913, p. 2.
intuition, allows us to enter into harmonic relation widi others, and die life
force immanent in each of us.71 71. See AntllfT, Inraulng Bergson, pp. 151-4.
72. Les Compagnons de I'Action d'Art,
As Lacaze-Dutliier before him, Colomer declares tius psychological unity to 'Declaration', p . l .
be antidietjcal to die communitarian ideal propagated by anarcho-communists.
Anarcho-communism calls for die formation of communes to meet die
material needs of comrades, and, according to Colomer, it is die commune as
an ideal diat dien takes precedence over die individuals who compose it. Thus
individuals in a commune 'are condemned to suffer in die company of
individuals whom diey do not like for die sole well being of The Cause, for die
prosperity of The Colony'. In that respect, allegiance to die commune is no
different from allegiance to a class or a country, for in all diese cases individual
temperament, what Colomer terms 'intuitive sympathy' or Lacaze-Dudiier
labels persona] 'harmony', takes second place to an abstract ideal. By way of
contrast a true band should facilitate the 'greatest realization of each
individual' not die well being of die group at die expense of die individual.
Unconstrained by notions of class, die state, or die material needs diat result
from communal living, members of an Artistocratic collective can come from
all walks of life, and freely leave a given band if diey so choose. All diat is
required is diat tiiey are drawn to a particular group out of 'intuitive
sympadiy', so diat harmony between band members is assured. Thus in dieir
declaration announcing die creation of L'Action d'art, die compagnons
announced diat diey were united by virtue of dieir 'attitude in life' radier
dian out of respect for some 'Audiority' or 'social order' diat 'necessarily
crushes individuality'.

114 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998


73. 'Un Theatre d'Action d'Art', L'Action d'Art,
15 April 1913, p. 2.
74. See Lacaze-Duthier, 'Un Theatre de la
Uideur', L'Aaloa d'Art, 25 December 1913, p. 2
and Coloraer, 'Les Poetes joucs par les Poetes',
VAction d'Art, 25 December 1913, p. 2.
75. For a discussion of this schism, sec Antliff,
Inventing Bergson, pp. 155—66. The division
between Severini and the Futurists Carlo Carra
and Umberto Boccioni was compounded by
Severini's support of Giannattasio's recent
conversion to Futurism. Despite the fact that
Carri labelled Giannattasio a mediocrity who
diluted the quality of the original Futurist
group, Severini was unwavering in his support
and facilitated the young Futurist's participation
in the theatre project. For evidence of Carri's
disdain for Giannattasio, see his letter to
Severini dated 13 March 1914 in Mario Drudi
Gambillo and Teresa Rori (eds.) Archlri del
futunsmo, vol. 1 (De Luca Editore. Rome,
1958), pp. 318-19.
76. Throughout the period of hu involvement
in the Action d'Art movement Severini was
actively courting dealers and seeking exhibition
venues in the hope of improving his economic
prospects. In his autobiography, La Vita di
piuore, Severini details his exhibition plans and
dire economic straits during the pre-war period.
He also outlines his differences with Marlnetti,
whom he condemns for having reduced the
Futurist movement to a publicity itunt through
the profusion of exhibitions, conference* and
manifestos. See the chapter titled 'Londra,
matrimonio, viaggio in Italia' in Gino Severini,
La Vita dj piaore (1946, rpt. Edinoni di
Communita: Milan, 1965), pp. 135-76. For a
detailed account of Severini's involvement in
and sympathy for the Action d'Art group, see
Antliff, Inventing Eergson, pp. 137—40; for an
outline of Sevenni's correspondance with
Marinetti, and his role in Futurist promotional
tactics, ice Marianne W. Martin, 'Carissimo
Marinetti: Letters from Severini to the Futurist
Chief, An journal, Winter 1981, pp. 305-12.
77 See Ugo Giannattasio, 'Vers unc renaissance
du decor', L'Aaton d'Art, 25 December 1913,
pp. 1-2 and Giannattasio, 'A la Recherche de
l'Absolu', L'Aaioo d'An, 25 December 1913,
p. 3.
78. Giannattasio, 'Ven une renaissance du
decor', pp. 1-2.
79. Gino Severini, 'The Plastic Analogies of
Dynamism', September-October 1913, in
Umbro Apollonio (cd.) Futurist Manifestos, trans.
J.C. Hlggit (Vildng: New York, 1973), p. 121.
The 'Aestheticism'of the Action d'art Group
A Futurist Artistocracy
Presumably the Guilde les Forgerons also constituted an Artistocratic band, and
the Artistocrats sought to replicate the success of that endeavour by founding a
'Theatre d'Action d'art' in April 1913. The journal's editors described theatre
as 'a field of action wherein there can be accomplished beautiful gestures,
realized harmonies' all in the service of the 'lyrical', the 'heroic', the
'individualist'.73 To live up to these ideals the theatre had to be a non-profit
venture, with the Artistocrats themselves in the role of actors, and the theatre
sets and costumes designed by artists willing to lend their services. Thus
Lacaze-Duthier labeled commercial theatre 'the theatre of ugliness' while
Colomer in another article singled out poets as ideal performers, noting that
the poet alone possessed 'the power of imagination in all the harmony of his
personality'.74
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
In the initial statement announcing the new theatre the decor was supposed
to be designed by Atl, but by the time the theatre project got seriously
underway in December 1913, the Futurists Giannattasio and Severini had
replaced Atl as theatre designers. This switch in personnel may have resulted
not only from Atl's return to Mexico in late 1913, but from the formation of
an organizational committee in the autumn of that year to oversee production
plans. The committee membership included Severini's father-in-law, the poet
Paul Fort, and Fort's presence probably played a role in Severini's decision to
aid the Artistocratic cause. The familial relation was augmented by a
theoretical one, for Severini thought the Bergsonian anarchism expounded by
Artistocrat Andre Colomer compatible with his own Bergsonist aesthetic,
which he found to be somewhat at odds with the belicose nationalism of his
Futurist colleagues.75 By restricting his discourse in L'Action d'art to an outline
of the Futurists' theories of artistic expression, Severini consciously avoided
mention of the Artistocratic critique of the gallery system, and instead outlined
that aspect of his praxis most compatible with Artistocratic ideals.76 A similar
strategy was developed by Giannattasio, who published two articles in L'Action
d'an, one devoted to theatre decor, and the other being a hitherto
undocumented manifesto titled 'A la Recherche de l'Absolu'. By analysing
those two statements we gain some idea of how art, anarchism and Futurism
were conjoined.
'It is with the greatest joy that I see bome this theatre of art, and that I am
ready to receive my portion of whistles along with my heroic Action d'art
comrades': in this manner Giannattasio announced his plans to develop a new
theatre decor suitable to Artistocratic ideals. Unlike Lacaze-Duthier, whose
condemnation of theatre was part of a broader critique of the
commercialization of the arts, Giannattasio restricted his attack on the
bourgeoisie to that group's aesthetic preference for 'the conventional and
picturesque'. In its place Giannattasio proposed a new theatre allied to the
Bergsonian precepts advocated by his fellow Futurist Severini and the poet
Andre Colomer.7 At the time Severini had developed a Bergsonian theory of
'plastic analogies', through which he created poetic relations between the form
and content of his paintings. Just as a given colour produced its colour
complement, Severini reasoned that a given image should produce a
representational 'complement' in the artist's intuitive imagination. Thus in a
Manifesto of 1913 Severini stated that 'the spiralling shapes and beautiful
contrasts of yellow and blue' in a painting like his Sca=Dancer of 1914 were
'intuitively felt one evening while living the movements of a girl dancing'.79 In
another text of 1913, Severini adds that 'it is by his intuition' that he 'is
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 115
Mark Antlifl"

penetrating into the life, the soul, the activity of things', before relating the
pictorial imagery resulting from this intuition to a passage from Bergson: ' "To
perceive", says Bergson, "is after all, nothing more than to remember" '. 80 In 80. Gino Severini, 'Introduction', The Futurist
his Manifesto Severini traces the geneology of that process, clearly operative in Painter Seraini Eihibiu His Latest Works,

his association of the dancer with ocean waves, back to his Memories of a Voyage Mariborough Gallery, London, April 1913.

of 1910—11 (Fig. S), 'a painting of memory that brought together into a single 81. Severing 'The Plastic Analogies of
plastic whole things perceived in Tuscany, in the Alps, in Paris, etc'. 81 Dynamism', p. 121.

Severini's Sea—Dancer, painted in tandem with his first exposure to the 82. Severini, 'The Plastic Analogies of
Dynamism', p. 121.
L'Action d'art group, simply updated a principle initially applied to
representational content alone to include the 'qualitative radiations'82 of
complementary colours and forms among those 'plastic analogies' intuitive
experience invoked in his mind. Giannattasio took up Severini's synesthetic
research and applied his terminology to the relation between the poet-
performer and theatre decor. 'Why not', he states, 'create a sort of emotive-

Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015

psychological complementarism for the theatre', since 'every state of the soul
has its pictorially representational complementary' and 'every sensation
awakens in us a dream of colours and forms?' It is through 'the plastic
complementarism of the emotion', that decor will 'leave its exterior and
impersonal state in order to become the body and soul of the poem, the poem
itself activated under another form, awakening in the spectator a crowd of
parallel emotions'. For decor to be the product of poetic intuition it can no
longer be 'exterior' and 'impersonal', it must be poetic in its own right, and
thus a complement to the emotion the poet-performer wishes to convey. Just
as Severini declared the sea to be the poetic complement to a dancer, and blue
the plastic analogue to yellow, so Giannattasio thought painted decor should
augment a stage performance: 'we call x the emotion that animates the verse
pronounced by the actor in the scene', and 'since all emotion up to its plastic
complement will appear at this instant', the ever changing 'complementary
values [of the decor] will accompany the poem up to the end'. In sum, the

Fig. 5. Gino Severini, 'Memories of a Voyage', 1 9 1 0 - 1 1 , oil on canvas. 81.2 x 99.8 cm. Private
Collection.

116 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 199S


83. Giannattasio, 'Ven une renaissance du
decor*, pp. 1—2.
84. Giannattaiio.'A la Recherche de I'Absolu',
p. 3.
85. See Matei Calinescu, Fin faces of Modernity
(Duke University Press: Durham, 1987), p. 112.
86. See Renato Poggioli, The Theory of the
Aram-Garde, trans. G. Fitzgerald (Harvard
University Pros Cambridge, Mass., 1968),
pp. 11—12; Calinescu, in his critique of
Poggioli, finds 'Poggioli's idea of an abrupt and
complete divorce of the two avant-garde'i
unacceptable' (Calinescu, Fire Faces of Modernity,
p. 113) but does not back up his daim with
historical evidence. In many respects the
Artistocrat's anarchist critique bear's comparison
to Surrealism, Lettrism, and SituaOonism in Its
attack on art-as-commodity and the rationalism
of state bureaucracies. On the latter
movements, and their interrelation, sec Peter
Wollen, 'Bitter Victory: The Art and Politics of
the Situationist International', Elisabeth Sussman
(ed.), on the Passage of a Jew people through a
rather brief moment In time: The Situationist
International, 1997-1972 (M.I.T. Press:
Cambridge, MA, 1989), pp. 20-61. Andre
Breton, who would later daim an anarchist
geneology for Surrealism, was an avid reader of
L'Aaion d'art. For documentation of Breton's
Artistocratic links and interest in anarcbijm, see
Marguerite Bonnet, Andre Breton: Naissance de
I'arenture suniailsu (Corti: Paris, 1975), pp. 36—
51; and Jerrold Seigel, Bohemian Paris. Culture,
Polttla and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, IS 30-
1930 (Viking- New York, 1986), pp. 370-1 and
384-9
The 'Aestheticisin'of the Action d'art Group
decor and the actor's performance became indivisible, and formed an
unbroken, mobile continuity throughout the play.83 In 'A la Recherche de
I'Absolu' Giannattasio had called upon artists to capture the 'integral
dynamism' of an object by finding a pictorial vocabulary for an object's 'faculty
of expansion'. Every object reportedly had a certain weight and molecular
density; it was the artist's task to perceive an object's potential for expansion
in the guise of pure energy. For Giannattasio, as for Severini, the pictorial
analog for pure energy was colour, a qualitative sensation Bergson associated
with matter in a state of flux. Thus the fluctuant 'complementary values'
uniting the actor with the mise en scene were ideally suited to convey the
play's 'intuitive' import to a given audience.84 This Bergsonian vocabulary
allowed Giannattasio to align his own precepts with the Bergsonism pervading
Artistocratic theory, while simultaneously avoiding any dialogue concerning
die commercial aspects of Futurism.
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
Conclusion
In sum, the union of modernists and anarchists under the banner of an
artistocratie is a testament to what Matei Calinescu describes as the left's
ongoing transferral of die 'radical critique of social forms to the domain of
artistic forms'.85 This conjoining of political and artistic avant-gardism
effectively undermines Renato Poggioli's claim that 'the divorce of the
[political and artistic] avant-gardes' took place during die 1880s, or Peter
Burger's assertion diat the wartime rise of Dada alone reinstigated the
merger of political and aesthetic radicalism. On the contrary, the
involvement of Futurists and Cubists in the Artistocratic movement attests
to the ongoing politicization of aesthetic avant-gardism diroughout the
period before die appearance of Zurich Dada in 1916. Giannattasio's
alignment of his Futurist aesthetic widi Artistocratic theory, Atl's adaptation
of Cubist space to his decorative programme, or Colomer's anarchist
reading of Cubist innovation points to die ongoing dialogue between
anarchists and Parisian modernists over theories of vanguardism and the
political import of aestheticism.
While die Artistocrats concurred diat die vanguardism signalled by stylistic
innovation was conducive to dieir own departure from accepted societal
norms, Lacaze-Dudiier and Atl felt diat aesthetic novelty in and of itself was
not sufficient. The attraction of die Action d'art movement for artists such as
Severini and Giannattasio resided in die fact diat bodi die Futurists and
Artistocrats shared die same epistemological assumptions: what served to
separate diem were tiieir differing conceptions of how diose assumptions
related to market forces. For Colomer, an artist's allegiance to Bergsonian
individualism alone was enough to determine his anarchist convictions; for
Lacaze-Dudiier or Atl an artist's involvement in die commercial market
determined whedier self-professed ideals were sincere or merely self-serving.
Artists like Severini or Giannattasio inhabited a middle ground, finding
compatibility between dieir Bergsonism and diat of Colomer, while
maintaining dieir commercial ties.
Artistocrats like Colomer addressed die attack on commercial-oriented
modernists mounted by Atl and Lacaze-Dudiier by stressing die Bergsonian
assumptions diat served to unite his dieory of self-expression widi drat of
die Cubists and Futurists. When an attempt was made widiin Artistocratic
circles to include die Cubists and Futurists, Lacaze-Dudiier's critique of
dieir commercialism was superceded by Colomer's celebration of the
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 117
Mark Antliff
modernists' freedom of expression, as in the defence of the Wilde
monument. The Artistocrats' linkage of artistic freedom widi sexual
liberation implicated the modernists in a critique of social mores as well as
state policy in the arts.87 The merging of aesthetic avant-gardism with a
totalizing critique of bourgeois culture culminated in the creation of an
anarchist theatre, wherein Futurist stage sets and costumes were utilized to
convey Artistocratic ideals to a plebian audience. The Futurist Giannattasio
even declared himself to be a 'compagnon' and melded his Futurist theory
with Artistocratic praxis.
The Artistocratic trumpeting of aesthetic ideals mat precluded commercial
praxis is of the utmost importance, for among historians of twentieth-century
art it is frequently claimed that a critique of diis type only occured during die
Great War. A major advocate of mis position is the Marxist Peter Burger,
whose Theory of the Avant-Gardc (1984) separates the concept of a post-war
'avant-garde' from a pre-war 'aesthetic modernism' on die basis of the latter's
uncritical complicity in the art market. According to Burger, pre-1914
modernists withdrew from political engagement out of disgust for bourgeois
values, which led them to concentrate on the artistic means of production as an
end in itself. Simultaneous widi this withdrawal, society embraced the ideals of
'aesthetic modernism1 and came to cherish this self-referential art as a realm of
cultural production diat stood for edifying values superior to base materialism.
Paradoxically the notion of artistic autonomy adopted by modernists was
precisely what made their art a valuable commodity in capitalist society. In
Burger's view, it was only with the rise of Dada during World War One that a
true avant-garde emerged which sought to address the conflict between
modernism's aestheticist ideals and its role in die market place. By divorcing
art from any form adaptable to die commercial market, Dada reportedly
rejected die nonengaged formalism of aesdietic modernism so diat art could
reenter die political arena.89
Burger's assumption diat aesdieticism and political engagement constitute
two separate realms has been adopted by odiers, even diough some would
question his division between 'aesdietic modernism' and 'avant-gardism'.
Martha Ward, for instance, endorses Burger's claim diat 'aesdieticism made
apparent die separateness of art in society', adding diat die appearance of
notions of aesdietic 'autonomy' in die 1880's were a function of die
Impressionist turn to private galleries for the marketing of dieir art. In her
view die Neo-Impressionist committment to public exhibitions constituted
'an implicit rejection of die diorough privatization (aesdieticization) of
Impressionism and die apparent reduction of painting's content to market
expectations'. For Ward, notions of aesdieticism were allied to an embrace
of die gallery system radier dian anarchist ideology. Robert Jensen in turn
could claim diat die construction of die very idea of an avant-garde was die
product of die gallery system, which heightened die competition between
artists vying for an audience. The proliferation of art movements after 1900,
each widi its own art historical geneology, was no more man a marketing
ploy 'to gain access to die public'. 'The criterion for diis commercial avant-
garde,' Jensen states, 'became not political or social relevance [but radier] an
abstract aestheticism, supported by historicist discourses and rising prices.'91
For Jensen die modernist's self-proclaimed 'moral purpose' was only so
much window-dressing for an avant-gardism whose true aim was to secure
sales.
In similar fashion, David Cottington has argued diat die break-up of
collaboration 'between sections of the French liberal bourgeoisie and die urban
118 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998
87 Indeed the issue of artistic freedom was a
compelling one, for the Cubists were just then
recovering from attempts in the Chamber of
Deputies to prevent diem from exhibiting in
public buildings. Some members of the
Chamber raised the spectre of racial nationalism
by noting that many Cubists were either
foreigners or of foreign descent, and they
condemned the movement as harmful to die
French tradition. In the midst of such threats,
the Artistocrats' defence of the foreigners
Epstein and Wilde must have been appealing, as
was Ad's Artistocratic declaration that 'the
beauty of Paris' resided 'in the liberty that
permits the development of the individual and
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
which makes this radiant aty a melting pot'.
See Atl, 'La beaute de Pans', L'Aaion d'An, 1
March 1913, p 4 On the Chamber of Deputies
debate, see Leighten, Re-Ordering the Universe,
pp. 98-101.
88. Peter Burger, Theory ofthe Arant-Garde
(University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis,
1984)
89. As an example of this shift Burger contrasts
the motives that led Picasso to create collage In
1912 with those that resulted in John
Heartfield's anti-Nan photomontages. Though
the cheap materials employed in the creation of
collage were an affront to pre-1914 conventions
of artistic production, the fragments 'remain
largely subordinate to the aesthetic composition'
whereas Dada photo-montages were not just
aesthetic objects, 'but images for reading'
(Burger, Theory of the Avanl-Garde, pp. 73—£).
On this basis Burger concludes that Picasso's
collages were still confined within the discourse
of art production rather dian political praxis.
What Burger's theory precludes is the possibly
diat the paper fragments In a work like Picasso's
Bottle of Suze (1912) were chosen in order to be
read and that the artist's aesthetic decisions
were part and parcel of his political ideals and
aspirations. Yet it is precisely the readability of
these collage fragments that inspired Patricia
Leighten to uncover the political dimension of
Picasso's art, for in works like the Boule of Suze
Picasso combined reports of war atrocities in
the Balkans wiuS those documenting pacifist
protest in Paris. By expressing diese themes
dirough the medium of cheap newsprint, Picasso
may have signalled his anarchist protest not only
against nationalist war-mongering, but against
the aesthetic corollary of such polldes,
exemplified by the oil on canvas and moralising
dicmes of die Academic art of die official
salons. Thus Burger's tidy distinction between
'aesthetic composition' and 'images for reading'
is effectively undermined. See Leighten, He-
Ordering the Universe, pp. 121—42.
90. Ward, Pissarro, Neo-lmpressioniBn, and the
Spaces of the Arant-Garde, p. 264.
91. 'None of the pre-war avant-gardes, not
even the Futurists, saw the contradiction
between dieir anti-commercial stance [and] their
own allegiance to the commercial galleries'

because they actively suppressed their
commercial ties in the name of 'high
modernism', die 'monl purpose of art'. See
Robert Jensen, "The Avant-garde and die Trade
in Art', An Journal, Winter 1988, pp. 360-7.
92. See David Cottington, 'Cubism,
Aesdieticism, Modernism', in Pkasso and Braque-
A Sjmpodum (Museum of Modem Art: New
York, 1992), pp. 58-72 and 'What the Papers
Say: Politics and Ideology in Picasso's Collages
of 1912', An Journal, Winter 1988, pp. 350-9.
For a critique of Cottington's reading of the
interrelation of Cubism and Neo-Symbolism see
Frasana, 'Realism, Ideology and die
"Discursive" in Cubism', pp. 163—80.
Cottington has mounted a similar argument with
reference to die Puteaux Cubists, declaring that
Henri-Martin Barzun and his Cubist allies moved
'away from any attempt at working widi the
organisations of the left' after 1905 ('What the
Paper* Say', p. 352). As I have demonstrated
elsewhere, after 1911 Barzun, Gleizes and their
Neo-Symbolist allies endorsed a left-wing
nationalist discourse diat pitted the 'Celtic' and
'Godiic' geneology of French culture against dw
nationalism of die extreme Right in France.
Drawing on a discourse with roots in the
socialist and syndicalist movements, drey
continued to signal their leftist political
allegiances In die realm of cultural criticism. See
Antliff, Interning Bergson, pp. 106—34.
93. Cottington, 'Cubism, Aestheticism,
Modernism', pp. 63—4.
94. Cottington, 'What the Papers Say',
pp. 352-4.
95. Cottington, 'Cubism, Aestheticism,
Modernism', pp. 69—70.
The 'Aestheticism'of the Action d'art Group
working class' — signalled by the demise of the Bloc des Gaudies and the
Universite Populaires movement — led to the rejection of 'fellow travelling
literary and artistic anarchists' on the part of 'the organized working class',
who reportedly withdrew into 'syndicalist autonomism'.92 With the rise of
nationalism after 190S and its permeation of political discourse on both the
right and the left, 'there were few lines of resistance remaining by about
1912'. One such line 'was offered by the syndicalist movement, but given the
widening gulf after 190S between sections of the literary and artistic avant-
garde, few among the latter were in a position to find it, let alone disposed to
follow it'. As 'fellow travellers' this avant-garde had no real committment to
the left; and Cottington's orthodox Marxism leads him to disparage anarchists
in a similar manner — they can only be 'literary' or 'artistic', but never
'working class'. According to Cottington 'the more attractive alternative' for
avant-garde circles that included the Neo-Symbolists, Apollinaire, Salmon, and
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015
Cubists such as Picasso 'was that of aestheticism', an aestheticism denned by
Cottington in terms of the supposed autonomy of works of art devoid of
political punch. Dealers and collectors such as Kahnweiler or Gertrude Stein
shared the Cubists' 'profound attachment' to an 'aestheticism' the 'principal
features' of which 'were a belief in the social autonomy and superior truth of
art and a committment to traditional aesthetic values'. Refering to Picasso's
collages, Cottington concludes that 'the subversive potential of their pictorial
materials', and the anarchist and pacifist events Picasso highlighted through his
choice of newsprint, are secondary to 'the laws of beauty' governing the
pictorial structure and an 'asthetic game' into which the Neo-Symbolist avant-
garde had reportedly retreated. Since the Neo-Symbolists and their Cubist
allies were 'lacking any route through to alternative, popular spaces of
resistance to dominant culture, their putative subversion of high art could only
circle back on itselF in the guise of an aestheticism divorced from 'a critique of
capitalist culture'.95
Burger, Cottington and Jensen are relunctant to acknowledge that 'aesthetic
modernism' or 'avant-gardism' could be pitted against the commercial market
the gallery system epitomized. In associating aestheticism with a depoliticized
form of avant-gardism, they, along with Ward, effectively deny that
aestheticism could serve political ends contrary to mercantilism. It is my
contention that the Action d'art collective constituted an example of such
resistance and that the group's aesthetic avant-gardism was meant to galvanize
Parisian modernists like the Neo-Symbolists and their Cubist allies as well as
the Parisian working class. The concepts of 'aestheticism' and 'avant-gardism'
utilized by the Artistocrats clearly served ends at odds with those that would
strip these terms of any radical valences. In Artistocratic theory concepts of
aesthetic beauty and harmony were part and parcel of a social transformation
that would sweep away capitalism to make way for an anarchist social order.
Far from embracing an 'abstract aestheticism' to avoid political concerns,
participants in the Artistocratic project, such as Severini, tried to adapt their
theories to an ideology that rejected the market place altogether in the name of
what I can only call anarchist aestheticism. Far from 'lacking any route through
to alternative, popular spaces of resistance to dominant culture' the shared
aestheticism and avant-gardism uniting the Artistocrats with the Neo-
Symbolists, Cubists and Futurists served to ally these subcultural groups in
their protest against the political, cultural and capitalist status quo. Moreover
the existence of the Theatre d'action d'art and Cuilde les Forgerons points to the
fact that syndicalism was not the only route to a working class audience after
1905. Such avant-guerre realities undermine the reading of modernist stategies
OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998 119
Mark Antliff
sketched out above, and the role of anarchism in this regard is crucial, since
anarchist aestheticism is used here to critique capitalism. It is by attending to
such complex choices, rather than denying their existence, 96 that we gain a
clearer understanding of the function of aestheticism within modernist and
anarchist discourse during the pre-war period.
° (really only an analogy or symbol) that aesthetic
120 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 21.2 1998
96. The mon blatant example of«di thinking
occun in Poggioli'i Thaxj <ftbe Aram-Gait,
P- 95 ' w h e r c "* P " ^ ™ * " <tbe ^W"****
radicalism and social radicalism, revolutionaries
in art and revolutionaries in politics, are allied,
which empirically seems valid, is theoretically
and historically erroneous'.
Downloaded from http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/ at McMaster University Library on March 20, 2015