The Spanish Civil War, which for almost three years from 17 July 1936 tore the European nation apart, resulted in 1939 in the establishment of a military dictatorship under the formidable General Francisco Franco. During World War II, the Spanish autocrat provided strategic support to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, repaying the countries’ backing of his Nationalist rebels during the Civil War. But in the advent of … Continue reading Spain’s Anti-Francoist Art
1956 was a heady year of protest against the repressive Communist governments that controlled much of Central and Eastern Europe. The most famous uprising of that year is the Hungarian Revolution, a nationwide rebellion that was brutally suppressed by invading Soviet forces. Espionart has previously explored this landmark Cold War episode by looking at József Jakovits’s poignant biomorphic sketches, which chronicled the revolutionaries’ fight against … Continue reading Painting the Red Plague
The sensational trial of the Chicago Seven, which lasted almost a year from 1969 to 1970, became a focal point for campaigns against American involvement in the Vietnam War. The seven defendants were charged with conspiracy to incite violence and riots relating to the countercultural protests that took place outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention from 26 to 29 August. For five days and nights, … Continue reading Conspiracy: The Artist as Witness
On 2 May 1957 the notorious Republican senator Joseph McCarthy died. Throughout the 1950s, McCarthy’s virulent brand of anti-communism terrorised and stultified US society, leading many innocent people to lose their livelihoods and driving some to suicide. At the height of the McCarthyist witch-hunts the senator even threw accusations of communist infiltration at the US State Department, the Truman administration, Voice of America and the US … Continue reading The Revenge of the Blacklisted Artist
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