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ART AND POWER

Art and architecture in Europe 1930-45

Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre, London; 26 October 1995 - 21 January 1996. Art, architecture, film and propaganda in the age of the contending authoritarian ideologies.

Focusing on Paris, Rome, Moscow and Berlin, this exhibition examines the opposition between modernism and tradition etc.

It may be a truism but the similarity in style between Nazi and Soviet art is striking. Indeed, if it were not for the division of the exhibition into separate national rooms, and the specific iconography within particular exhibits, it would be difficult to attach the examples of heroic realism or stodgy monumentalism to either regime with any certainty. It is, perhaps, a pity that the exhibition is not organised to bring this out more.

The Italian art and architecture were undoubtedly better, often achieving an elegant blend of modernism and classicism, a product of the greater tolerance of artistic pluralism and reluctance to impose a reductivist, state-ordained style.

The examples of oppositional art are rather disappointing.

Rik - 10 November 1995