today's art: André Fougeron, Atlantic Civilisation, Civilisation atlantique, 1953, Oil paint on canvas, (380 x 350 cm), Tate Modern, Londres

Atlantic Civilisation is Fougeron's key work of social criticism and an extraordinary example of Cold War rhetoric. Fougeron caricatures the Americanisation of Europe, then a major target of Communist Party propaganda. At more than five and a half metres wide, Atlantic Civilisation was a self-consciously grand gesture with which Fougeron was inextricably identified after it was shown at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in November 1953. The image is packed with conflicting narratives of corruption, rooted in colonialism, class and capitalism. Reference is made to the French colonial wars in Indo-China through the posters of the colonial parachutists and the returning coffins with mourners set against the Asian woman with a dead child. This last image quotes from Guernica (Museo de Reina Sofía, Madrid), the 1937 mural by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) that epitomised the civilian cost of war. There are allusions to the consequences of other French colonial policies: the subjugation of black Africa in the person of the child shoe-shine and of North Africa in the immigrant Algerians sheltering under corrugated iron (at the bottom left). In Atlantic Civilisation Fougeron addressed more general fears about the break-down of family life by showing old people abandoned on a bench, the mother and children living in a tent, and a circle of children engulfed by industrial pollution. That these contrasts are borne of class disparities is emphasised through the juxtapositions of Algerians next to the middle-class children in their camouflaged air-raid shelter, and the shoe-shine in a vest next to pet dogs in coats.

The root of this corruption, in Fougeron's view and as indicated through his title, is the post-war culture promoted by the United States, the embodiment of capitalist consumerism and militarism. At the centre of the composition is a huge American car, flanked by a uniformed G.I., feet up on a French café table, reading a soft porn magazine. France, in the caricatural figure of the fat businessman, pays homage to the car. The detail of the second soldier, shooting across the car, confirms that these symbols are implicitly fascistic, as his German helmet is marked with the SS of the Nazi storm-troopers. Over all of this is the towering electric chair used by the Americans to execute Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, in June 1953, on charges of 'conspiracy with the aim of espionage'. As they were accused of passing nuclear secrets to the USSR out of conscience rather than financial gain, they exemplified - according to the political left - a principled peace movement. This detail is set against that of the children in the air-raid shelter to underscore the nuclear threat that defined the polarisation of the Cold War.

Martyred Spain, Espagne martyre, 1937, Oil paint on canvas

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Les Quatre Chevaliers de l'Apocalypse, 1937, Ink on paper

The Tournament, Le Tournoi, 1937, Ink on paper

Homage to Franco!!!, Hommage à Franco!!!, 1937, Graphite on paper

Ο Αντρέ Φουζερόν (1913 Παρίσι - 1998 Παρίσι) είναι αυτοδίδακτος ζωγράφος. Εργάσθηκε ως μεταλλουργός στη βιομηχανία Renault. Το 1939 έγινε μέλος του κομμουνιστικού κόμματος και κατά τη διάρκεια της γερμανικής κατοχής ανέπτυξε έντονη αντιστασιακή δράση. Το 1941 μετέτρεψε το εργαστήριο του σε παράνομο τυπογραφείο, όπου σχεδίασε τους τίτλους των παράνομων εφημερίδων και τύπωνε τις περισσότερες από αυτές. Τον ίδιο χρόνο εξέθεσε στην έκθεση «Είκοσι Ζωγράφοι της Γαλλικής Παράδοσης» («Vingt Peintres de tradition francaise»).

Το 1942 ορίζεται υπεύθυνος για θέματα τέχνης στο Εθνικό Μέτωπο των Τεχνών και συνεργάζεται με τους Εντουάρ Πινιόν (Edouard Pignon) και Εντουάρ Γκέρκ (Edouard Goerg). Τον επόμενο χρόνο συμμετέχει στην έκθεση «Δώδεκα σημερινοί ζωγράφοι» («Douze peintres d’ aujourd’hui») που θα παίξει καθοριστικό ρόλο στη δημιουργία της νέας σχολής του Παρισιού. Η ομάδα θα ονομασθεί «Νέοι Γάλλοι καλλιτέχνες».

The Cock Fighters, Les Coqueleux, 1950, Oil paint on canvas

Extremely detailed realism and working class subject matter come together in André Fougeron's portrait of a pair of miners as The Cock Fighters (Les Coqueleux - literally 'the breeders of fighting cocks'). The ruddy faces and hands of the two men set off the flamboyant colours of the groomed and armed cocks (their metal spurs temporarily corked). They are the only points of colour in the grey landscape under a glowering sky, just as the fight itself provides relief from relentless labour. The cocks confront each other and, although the miner on the left looks at the viewer, the challenging glance of the man on the right suggests that the forthcoming bout is seen as personal. The head of a third bird emerges from the central pannier, an indication, perhaps, that this will be a continuing ritual.

Return from the Market, Retour du marché, 1953, Oil paint on canvas

Massacre at Sakiet III, Massacre à Sakiet III, 1958, Oil paint on canvas

The crisis of French colonial policy became especially acute in the mid-1950s as indigenous peoples in North Africa fought for independence. In Algeria which was considered integral to France by the then government, there were acts of violence on all sides. The Communist Party actively supported the cause of colonised peoples and this is reflected in Fougeron's choice of subject matter for Massacre at Sakiet III. On 8 February 1958, French airforce bombardment resulted in the deaths of sixty-eight civilians at Sakiet Sidi Yousef on the Algerian-Tunisian border. Fougeron's painting captured the immediate response to an event that summarised the brutal war and evoked uncomfortable comparisons with the fascist bombardment of Guernica that had inspired Pablo Picasso's mural of 1937.

After André Fougeron’s Massacre à Sakiet III

How well we know these careless faces -

The naked bodies in a heap,

The ecstasy of death’s embraces,

The young boy smiling in his sleep.

Since they were murdered in Tunisia

In ’58, Death’s gotten busier;

Collateral damage is now the norm

From Palestine to Desert Storm.

We recognise these peaceful features

So well we barely catch our breath;

Who are so intimate with death,

We know their murders barely reach us.

But most of all we know whose boots

Stand guarding over empire’s fruits.

Andy Croft

Το 1944 συνάντησε τον Πιερ Βιγιόν (Pierre Villon) και τον Πωλ Ελυάρ (Paul Eluard). Μετά την απελευθέρωση, του ανατίθεται η οργάνωση μιας έκθεσης με έργα του Πικάσο σύμβολο της αντίστασης ενάντια στη ναζιστική κατοχή. Παρουσιάζεται το έργο «La Guerre» («Ο Πόλεμος») και μετά από διαβήματα του Εθνικού Μετώπου αγοράζεται από το κράτος. Το 1947 πραγματοποίησε ένα πολύμηνο ταξίδι στην Ιταλία, όπου μελέτησε την ιταλική ζωγραφική και συνδέθηκε με Ιταλούς καλλιτέχνες.

Η πρώτη του ατομική έκθεση έγινε το 1946 και ακολούθησε έντονη εκθεσιακή δραστηριότητα. Διακόσμησε την εκκλησία στην Romainville και άλλα δημοτικά κτήρια. Τιμήθηκε με πολλά βραβεία. Το 1954 προσκλήθηκε για τις λιθογραφίες του στη Μπιενάλε της Βενετίας.

Les juges, le pays des mines

Η θεματολογία του σχετίζεται πάντα με την κοινωνική και την πολιτική κριτική, τα έργα του σχολιάζουν τα σημαντικά γεγονότα της εποχής του.