The John Reed Clubs (1929–1935), often referred to as John Reed Club (JRC), were an American federation of local organizations targeted towards Marxist writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist and activist John Reed . Established in the fall of 1929, the John Reed Clubs were a mass organization of the Communist Party USA which sought to expand its influence among radical and liberal intellectuals. The organization was terminated in 1935.
75-619: In October 1929, the John Reed Club was founded by eight staff members of the New Masses magazine to support leftist and Marxist artists and writers. They included: Mike Gold , Walt Carmon , William Gropper , Keene Wallis, Hugo Gellert , Morris Pass, and Joseph Pass. According to Alan M. Wald , The John Reed Clubs were not founded by the Communist Party. New Masses managing editor Walt Carmon became frustrated with
150-839: A bastion of Marxist conformity. By the end of 1928, when Mike Gold and Joseph Freeman gained full editorial control, the “ Stalinist / Trotskyist ” division began in earnest. Gold’s January 1929 column, "Go Left, Young Writers!", initiated the “ proletarian literature ” movement, one spurred by the emergence of writers with true working-class credentials. Barbara Foley points out, though, that Gold and his peers did not eschew various literary forms in favor of strict realism ; they advocated stylistic experimentation, but championed and preferred genuine proletarian authorship. A substantial number of poems, short stories, journalistic pieces, and quasi-autobiographical sketches by young working-class writers ( Richard Wright and Jack Conroy being prime examples) dominated New Masses in its earliest days because
225-546: A civilization higher than the mechanized but still primitive one he has now, the eating of human flesh will be sanctioned. For then man will have thrown off all of his superstitions and irrational taboos." In 1920, urged by Alberto J. Pani , the Mexican ambassador to France, Rivera left France and traveled through Italy studying its art, including Renaissance frescoes . After José Vasconcelos became Minister of Education, Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 to become involved in
300-663: A clubhouse. Harold Hickerson had a music school with 100 pupils. Gropper and Lozowick taught graphic arts to 30. Edith Siegel led a "worker's ballet" for a Lenin memorial. Em Jo Basshe directed a Jewish Workers' theatre. Others taught at the New York Workers School . They cooperated with Workers International Relief . Gold recommended that every writer-member work in industry. He cited as example Ed Falkowski (miner), Martin Russak (textile worker), H. H. Lewis (farmer), and Joe Kalar (lumberman). On May 19, 1930,
375-735: A consulate. In September 1930, Rivera accepted a commission by architect Timothy L. Pflueger for two works related to his design projects in San Francisco . Rivera and Kahlo went to the city in November. Rivera painted a mural for the City Club of the San Francisco Stock Exchange for US$ 2,500. He also completed a fresco for the California School of Fine Art, a work that was later relocated to what
450-539: A destination for young European and American artists and writers, who settled in inexpensive flats in Montparnasse . His circle frequented La Ruche , where his Italian friend Amedeo Modigliani painted his portrait in 1914. His circle of close friends included Ilya Ehrenburg , Chaïm Soutine , Modigliani and his wife Jeanne Hébuterne , Max Jacob , gallery owner Léopold Zborowski , and Moise Kisling . Rivera's former lover Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska (Marevna) honored
525-573: A group of young writers who were hanging out in the office and getting in his way. He told them to "go out and form a club" and "call it the John Reed Club." The John Reed Clubs would be a constant source of drama within the New Masses family, and members of the Clubs would eventually found the Partisan Review , which became a main competitor to the New Masses . The New Masses announced
600-506: A light hat, and Vittorio Vidali behind in a black hat. However, the En el Arsenal detail shown does not include the right-hand side described nor any of the three individuals mentioned; instead it shows the left-hand side with Frida Kahlo handing out munitions. Leon Trotsky lived with Rivera and Kahlo for several months while exiled in Mexico. Some of Rivera's most famous murals are featured at
675-536: A major commission: twenty-seven fresco panels, entitled Detroit Industry , on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts . Part of the cost was paid by Edsel Ford , scion of the entrepreneur. During the McCarthyism of the 1950s, a large sign was placed in the courtyard defending the artistic merit of the murals while attacking his politics as "detestable." His mural Man at
750-464: A pioneer African-American artist, dancer, and textile designer. The mural and its archives are now held by City College of San Francisco . In 1946-47, Rivera painted A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park , a fresco that featured a fully elaborated figure of La Calavera Catrina . This character, which was created by José Guadalupe Posada , originally consisted of a print depicting
825-686: A pistol against right-wing students. In the autumn of 1922, Rivera participated in the founding of the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors, and later that year he joined the Mexican Communist Party (including its Central Committee ). His murals, subsequently painted in fresco only, dealt with Mexican society and reflected the country's 1910 Revolution . Rivera developed his own native style based on large, simplified figures and bold colors with an Aztec influence clearly present in murals at
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#1732779772547900-444: A place for creative writing of a leftist character was one of the original missions of New Masses , but this mission was crowded out by urgent demands for political and economic discussion and by the need for adherence to Party doctrine. According to Arthur Ferrari, the fate of New Masses illustrates how the circumstances under which political and cultural forces converge can be temporary in nature. Despite being an official organ of
975-507: A retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; this was before he completed his 27-mural series known as Detroit Industry Murals . Rivera had four wives and numerous children, including at least one illegitimate daughter. His first child and only son died at the age of two. His third wife was fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo , with whom he had
1050-507: A ten-point "Program of Action" to promote proletarian literature as an important part of promoting Marxism. On January 1, 1932, Diego Rivera spoke before the John Reed Club's New York chapter. Later, when the JRC heard of Rivera's support for Leon Trotsky , they disavowed him and returned a $ 100 contribution he made. The JRCs held a national conference on May 29–30, 1932, in Chicago. During
1125-546: A volatile relationship that continued until her death. His fourth and final wife was his agent. Due to his importance in the country's art history, the government of Mexico declared Rivera's works as monumentos históricos . As of 2018, Rivera holds the record for highest price at auction for a work by a Latin American artist . The 1931 painting The Rivals , part of the record-setting Collection of Peggy Rockefeller and David Rockefeller , sold for US$ 9.76 million. Rivera
1200-688: Is based on ancient Egyptian occult knowledge from Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti ." Diego Rivera has been portrayed in several films. He was played by Rubén Blades in Cradle Will Rock (1999), by Alfred Molina in Frida (2002), and (in a brief appearance) by José Montini in Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015). Barbara Kingsolver 's novel, The Lacuna features Rivera, Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky as major characters. An important scene of
1275-707: Is now the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute . During this period, Rivera and Kahlo worked and lived at the studio of Ralph Stackpole , who had recommended Rivera to Pflueger. Rivera met Helen Wills Moody , a notable American tennis player, who modeled for his City Club mural. In November 1931, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a retrospective exhibition of Rivera's work; Kahlo attended with him. Between 1932 and 1933, Rivera completed
1350-404: Is the dominant element in my life", despite never being raised practicing any Jewish faith, Rivera felt his Jewish ancestry informed his art and gave him "sympathy with the downtrodden masses". Diego was of Spanish, Amerindian, African, Italian, Jewish, Russian, and Portuguese descent . Rivera began drawing at the age of three, a year after his twin brother died. When he was caught drawing on
1425-777: The New Masses that the JRC had supported May Day as well as signed a petition for the International Labor Defense for prisoners of war. The club also collaborated with " Proletpen ", a Jewish proletarian writing group. It also supported the "United Front Conference Against Lynching", created by the New York district of the Communist Party USA . Books published by member writers included: Charles Yale Harrison 's Generals Die in Bed and Mike Gold 's children's story Charlie Chaplin's Parde . By November 1930, although originally politically independent,
1500-707: The New York Times published "A protest against the imprisonment of men and women for expressing their political opinions, coupled with a warning that "Red-baiting" is rapidly becoming a permanent condition, was voiced in a statement issued yesterday by the John Reed Club. The headlines of the article ran: ' RED SCARE' PROTEST ISSUED BY LIBERALS 100 Writers, Educators and Artists Warn of Dangers in 'Hysteria' and 'Persecution' SEE CIVIL RIGHTS AT STAKE Statement Says 1,600 Have Been Wrongfully Arrested In 2 Months-Aid of Press Asked Signatories included: In July 1930, Harry Alan Potemkin, JRC secretary, reported in
1575-687: The Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico City begun in September 1922, intended to consist of one hundred and twenty-four frescoes, and finished in 1928. Rivera's art work, in a fashion similar to the steles of the Maya , tells stories. The mural En el Arsenal ( In the Arsenal ) shows on the right-hand side Tina Modotti holding an ammunition belt and facing Julio Antonio Mella , in
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#17327797725471650-584: The Arsenal includes the figures of communists Tina Modotti , Cuban Julio Antonio Mella , and Italian Vittorio Vidali . After Mella was murdered in January 1929, allegedly by Stalinist assassin Vidali, Rivera was accused of having had advance knowledge of a planned attack. After divorcing his second wife, Guadalupe (Lupe) Marin, Rivera married the much younger Frida Kahlo in August 1929. They had met when she
1725-455: The Aztec goddess of maize in his book Canto a la Tierra: Los murales de Diego Rivera en la Capilla de Chapingo . The corpses of revolutionary heroes Emiliano Zapata and Otilio Montano are shown in graves, their bodies fertilizing the maize field above. A sunflower in the center of the scene "glorifies those who died for an ideal and are reborn, transfigured, into the fertile cornfield of
1800-614: The Communist Party, New Masses lost some of its Party support when the CPUSA's Popular Front stage began in 1936. That was when fighting the Spanish Civil War and the threat of world fascism trumped class conflict and political revolution in the U.S., at least for the foreseeable future. Although the magazine supported the Popular Front aims, it found itself in a difficult and complicated position as it tried to strike
1875-594: The Crossroads , originally a three-paneled work, begun as a commission for John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1933 for the Rockefeller Center in New York City, was later destroyed. Because it included a portrait of Vladimir Lenin , former leader of the Soviet Union and Marxist pro-worker content, Rockefeller's son, the press, and some of the public protested, but the decision to destroy it was made by
1950-817: The Crossroads in 1934 in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, calling this version Man, Controller of the Universe . On June 5, 1940, invited again by Pflueger, Rivera returned for the last time to the United States to paint a ten-panel mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. His work, Pan American Unity was completed November 29, 1940. Rivera painted in front of attendees at
2025-569: The Dickstein MacCormack Committee Suppressed” and “Wall Street's Fascist Conspiracy: Morgan Pulls the Strings”. Using a redacted version of congressional committee hearings, Spivak alleged there was a fascist conspiracy of U.S. financiers to take over the country, and cited the names of several implicated business leaders. In furtherance of the magazine’s editorial shift, “[t]he proletariat Stalinists of
2100-491: The Exposition, which had already opened. He received US$ 1,000 per month and US$ 1,000 for travel expenses. The mural includes representations of two of Pflueger's architectural works, and portraits of Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, woodcarver Dudley C. Carter , and actress Paulette Goddard . She is shown holding Rivera's hand as they plant a white tree together. Rivera's assistants on the mural included Thelma Johnson Streat ,
2175-554: The JRC and the New Masses officially affiliated with the Communist Party. This turn coincided with the JRC's participation in the Kharkov Conference of the International Union of Revolutionary Writers (IURW), November 6–15, 1930. The joint JRC- New Masses delegation included: Mike Gold, A.B. Magil, Fred Ellis, William Gropper, Harry Potamkin, Josephine Herbst, and John Herrmann. The conference led to
2250-546: The JRCs took a strong stance against Hitler and the rising tide of Fascism in Europe. In mid-1933, the JRCs held a second national conference. Attendees include: Jack Conroy , Meridel Le Sueur, Alan Calmer, Orrick Johns, Joe Jones, Nelsen Algren , William Phillips , Philip Rahv , Alfred Hayes, Gilbert Rocke, Jan Wittenber, Mike Gold, Richard Wright, Alexander Trachtenberg , A.B. Magil, Jack S. Balch, Joseph North. In 1936,
2325-493: The John Reed Club a Marxist organization. Its charter simply stated that any member who recognized class struggle and wished to give it support would be welcomed. It cannot be said that the JRC was committed beyond that general point. Many of its members were not Marxists, and the Clubs spent little time educating its members in the theoretical underpinnings of Engels , Marx , or Lenin . Between 1929 and 1936, some 46 proletarian novels were published, in no small part supported by
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2400-412: The John Reed Club in New York held exhibitions of member work from the summer of 1930; it established a gallery there in 1932. Records are scarce for 1932–1935. New Masses New Masses (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). It was the successor to both The Masses (1911–1917) and The Liberator (1918–1924). New Masses
2475-472: The John Reed Club. Books published by JRC members during JRC years include (novels unless otherwise noted): Artistic members of the John Reed Club of New York began holding art exhibitions in late 1929, shortly after the club's formation: The last known exhibition occurred at the ACA Gallery: its theme was "The Capitalist Crisis" and gained little notice outside of Communist press organs. The site of
2550-799: The John Reed Clubs dissolved into the American Artists' Congress by order of the Communist Party USA. The John Reed Club's slogan was "Art is a weapon in the class struggle." In May 1930, the headquarters for the John Reed Club was 102 West Fourteenth Street , New York City. In 1932, its location was 63 West Fifteenth Street , New York City. New York City and Los Angeles were the two centers of writer-members. In 1931, there were 13 JRC chapters. Chapters peaked at thirty. From New York, it spread to Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Boston, and other cities. The Boston chapter
2625-836: The National School of Agriculture ( Chapingo Autonomous University of Agriculture) at Chapingo near Texcoco (1925–1927), in the Cortés Palace in Cuernavaca (1929–30), and the National Palace in Mexico City (1929–30, 1935). Rivera painted murals in the main hall and corridor at the Chapingo Autonomous University of Agriculture (UACh). He also painted a fresco mural titled Tierra Fecundada ( Fertile Land in English) in
2700-725: The Netflix television series Sense8 (Episode S1E8 Death Doesn't Let You Say Goodbye, broadcast in 2015) is played in the Anahuacalli Museum , called “Diego Rivera Museum” by the Lito character. He and his co-sensate, Nomi, discuss about Rivera sitting in front of what is supposed to be a sketch of Rivera's Man at the Crossroads mural for the Rockefeller Center, destroyed in 1933 by Rockefeller. My Life, My Art: An Autobiography , by Diego Rivera, with Gladys March,
2775-662: The Party of Communists USA revived the name New Masses with its own publication. Diego Rivera Diego Rivera ( Spanish pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo riˈβeɾa] ; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the mural movement in Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in, among other places, Mexico City , Chapingo , and Cuernavaca , Mexico; and San Francisco , Detroit , and New York City , United States. In 1931,
2850-513: The Party's affiliated organizations. The goal was to expand the class struggle to the literary realm and support political revolution. In the mid-1930s, New Masses entered a new phase as a forum for left-wing political commentary. With its attention to literature confined mostly to book reviews, the magazine offered eye-catching articles aimed at non-Marxist readers. For instance, John L. Spivak published two provocative investigative pieces in 1935: “Wall Street’s Fascist Conspiracy: Testimony that
2925-527: The Soviet Union "stands for peace", and calling on all writers, artists, and professionals to unite "in defense of the first workers' republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." In November 1932, JRC members who publicly endorsed the Communist Party's US presidential slate ( William Z. Foster and James W. Ford ) included: EmJo Basshe, Robert Cantwell , Orrick Johns , Grace Lumpkin , Langston Hughes , Mike Gold , and Louis Lozowick . In early 1933,
3000-543: The United States and Mexico. Rivera died on November 24, 1957, at the age of 70. He was buried at the Panteón de Dolores in Mexico City. Rivera was an atheist . His mural Dreams of a Sunday in the Alameda depicted Ignacio Ramírez holding a sign that read, "God does not exist". This work caused a furor, but Rivera refused to remove the inscription. The painting was not shown for nine years – until Rivera agreed to remove
3075-599: The celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution . The following year, while still in the Soviet Union, he met American Alfred H. Barr Jr. , who would soon become Rivera's friend and patron. Barr was the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Although commissioned to paint a mural for the Red Army Club in Moscow, in 1928 Rivera was ordered by authorities to leave
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3150-521: The circle in her painting Homage to Friends from Montparnasse (1962). In those years, some prominent young painters were experimenting with an art form that would later be known as Cubism , a movement led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque . From 1913 to 1917, Rivera enthusiastically embraced this new style. Around 1917, inspired by Paul Cézanne 's paintings, Rivera shifted toward Post-Impressionism , using simple forms and large patches of vivid colors. His paintings began to attract attention, and he
3225-642: The conference, the JRCs announced they were "an integral part of the "Workers Cultural Federation". Conference ("presidium") members elected included: Joseph Freeman, Jan Wittenber, Conrad Komorowski, Kenneth Rexroth , Charles Natterstad, Harry Carlisle, George Gay, Carl Carlsen, and Jack Walters. Honorary members included Maxim Gorki , Romain Rolland , John Dos Passos , Seikichi Fujimori, Lo Hsun , Johannes Becher , Vallant-Couturier , and Langston Hughes , with Maurice Sugar as chairman and Oakley C. Johnson as secretary. Chapter reports consistently criticized
3300-466: The country because, he suspected, of "resentment on the part of certain Soviet artists." He returned to Mexico. In 1929, following the assassination of former president Álvaro Obregón the previous year, the government suppressed the Mexican Communist Party . That year Rivera was expelled from the party because of his suspected Trotskyite sympathies. In addition, observers noted that his 1928 mural In
3375-459: The founding group,” according to Samuel Richard West, “began applying a Marxist litmus test to every contribution; as a result, the less ideological contributors and editors began to drop away”. But the magazine still managed to include literary, artistic, and sociological content, just not in the same abundance as in previous years. While this content was slowly phased out in favor of politically oriented journalism, New Masses continued to influence
3450-675: The government sponsored Mexican mural program planned by Vasconcelos. See also Mexican muralism . The program included such Mexican artists as José Clemente Orozco , David Alfaro Siqueiros , and Rufino Tamayo , and the French artist Jean Charlot . In January 1922, he painted – experimentally in encaustic – his first significant mural Creation in the Bolívar Auditorium of the National Preparatory School in Mexico City while guarding himself with
3525-556: The head and shoulders of a skeletal woman in a big hat. Rivera endowed his Catrina figure with indigenous features and thus transformed her into a nationalist icon. Catrina is the most common image associated with Day of the Dead . In 1926, Rivera became a member of AMORC, the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis , an occult organization founded by American occultist Harvey Spencer Lewis . In 1926, Rivera
3600-569: The history of the women's struggle for equality in the U.S., the USSR, and within the international socialist movement. Though the Great Depression caused a surge in American communism and expanded New Masses readership – so much so that Mike Gold and his colleagues responded by turning the magazine into a weekly publication starting in January of 1934 – New Masses would eventually encounter competition from Partisan Review . Providing
3675-651: The inscription. He stated: "To affirm 'God does not exist', I do not have to hide behind Don Ignacio Ramírez; I am an atheist and I consider religions to be a form of collective neurosis." From the age of ten, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City . He was sponsored to continue study in Europe by Teodoro A. Dehesa Méndez , the governor of the State of Veracruz . After arriving in Europe in 1907, Rivera first went to Madrid, Spain to study with Eduardo Chicharro . From there he went to Paris , France,
3750-420: The late 1920s to 1940s was an attempt to create a radical culture in opposition to mass culture . Infused with a defiant, outsider mentality, this leftist cultural front represented a rich period in American history. Michael Denning has called it a "Second American Renaissance" because it permanently transformed American modernism and popular culture as a whole. One of the foremost periodicals of this renaissance
3825-487: The leftist cultural scene. For example, in 1937 New Masses printed Abel Meeropol 's anti-lynching poem " Strange Fruit ", later popularized in song by Billie Holiday . The magazine also sponsored the first From Spirituals to Swing concert on 23 December 1938 at Carnegie Hall , an event organized by John Hammond . In one of the magazine's last issues on 30 December 1947, editor Betty Millard published her groundbreaking feminist text, "Woman Against Myth", which examined
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#17327797725473900-551: The magazine sought "to make the ‘worker-writer’ a reality in the American radical press." Rather than cater only to the college-educated intelligentsia, the editorial policy lauded rough-hewn literature considered more appealing to a working-class audience. The convergence of this literary philosophy and CPUSA policy in Depression-era America was facilitated by the John Reed Club of New York City , one of
3975-465: The management company. Anti-Communism ran high in some American circles, although many others in this period of the Great Depression had been drawn to the movement as offering hope to labor. When Diego refused to remove Lenin from the painting, he was ordered to leave the US. One of Diego's assistants managed to take a few photographs of the work so Diego was able to later recreate it. American poet Archibald MacLeish wrote six "irony-laden" poems about
4050-422: The mural. The New Yorker magazine published E. B. White 's light poem, "I paint what I see: A ballad of artistic integrity", also in response to the controversy with number of sponsors taking offense to it. As a result of the negative publicity, officials in Chicago cancelled their commission for Rivera to paint a mural for the Chicago World's Fair . Rivera issued a press statement, saying that he would use
4125-415: The nation", writes Rodrigues. The mural also depicts Rivera's wife Guadalupe Marin as a fertile nude goddess and their daughter Guadalupe Rivera y Marin as a cherub. The mural was slightly damaged in an earthquake, but has since been repaired and touched up, remaining in pristine form. In the autumn of 1927, Rivera went to Moscow , Soviet Union, having accepted a government invitation to take part in
4200-502: The new club in its November 1929 issue: The radical artists and writers of New York have organized the John Reed Club. The group includes all creative workers in art, literature, sculpture, music, theater, and the movies... The purpose of the Club is to bring closer all creative workers; to maintain contact with the American revolutionary labor movement. In cooperation with workers groups and cultural organizations, discussion, literary evenings, and exhibits will be organized. Hopefully,
4275-1179: The new magazine was a tip of the hat to The Masses (1911–1917), forerunner of both publications. The New Masses' editorial staff included The Masses alumni Hugo Gellert , John F. Sloan , Max Eastman , Mike Gold , as well as Joseph Freeman , Granville Hicks (starting in 1934), Walt Carmon , and James Rorty . Many contributors are now considered distinguished, even canonical authors/writers, artists, and musical composers: William Carlos Williams , Theodore Dreiser , John Dos Passos , Upton Sinclair , Richard Wright , Ralph Ellison , Dorothy Parker , Dorothy Day , John Breecher, Langston Hughes , Eugene O'Neill , Rex Stout and Ernest Hemingway . More importantly, it also circulated works by avowedly leftist, even “ proletarian ” (working-class) artists: Kenneth Fearing , H.H. Lewis , Jack Conroy , Grace Lumpkin , Jan Matulka , Ruth McKenney , Maxwell Bodenheim , Meridel LeSueur , Josephine Herbst , Jacob Burck , Tillie Olsen , Stanley Burnshaw , Louis Zukofsky , George Oppen , Crockett Johnson , Wanda Gág , Albert Halper , Hyman Warsager , and Aaron Copland . The vast production of left-wing popular art from
4350-532: The organization will be national in scope... For the first time, a group of socially conscious creative workers has been organized in America to compare with existing groups in Europe. Steps have been taken to make immediate contact with writers, artists, and all creative workers in France, Germany, Russia, and Japan. In January 1930, Mike Gold described the JRC in the New Masses as a "small group" comprising writers, artists, sculptors, musicians, and dancers "of revolutionary tendencies". They were already building
4425-474: The original New York City chapter of ignoring the others. Harry Carlisle of JRC Hollywood opposed Mike Gold of JRC NYC for falling down on principle when opening the JRC to non-Marxist writers and artists. Instead, Carlisle urged, the JRC should focus on "artists and writers of distinctly working class origin." The July 1932 issue of the New Masses included the "John Reed Club Resolution Against War", stating its stance against "imminent imperial war", noting that
4500-555: The proper editorial balance. The 1940s brought significant philosophical and practical troubles to the publication. It struggled with the ideological upheavals caused by blowback from the Moscow Trials and Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 , while at the same time facing virulent anti-communism and censorship at home during the war. With its readership declining, New Masses published its final issue on 13 January 1948. The magazine soon merged with another Communist quarterly to form Masses & Mainstream (1948–1963). In 2016,
4575-412: The remaining money from his commission at Rockefeller Center to repaint the same mural, over and over, wherever he was asked, until the money ran out. He had been paid in full although the mural was reportedly destroyed. There have been rumors that the mural was covered over rather than removed and destroyed, but this has not been confirmed. In December 1933, Rivera returned to Mexico. He repainted Man at
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#17327797725474650-453: The students was Norman Lewis , studying from 1933 to 1935. By 1933, the New York chapter had 380 members, of whom some 200 were artists and the rest writers. The only paid job was secretary-treasurer at $ 15 per week. The 1932 national convention elected the following JRC officers from various chapters to a "National Executive Board": The John Reed Club had a somewhat prestigious membership in its early days among leftist circles. Later, it
4725-410: The time, the Mexican Communist Party excluded persons involved in Freemasonry , and regarded AMORC as suspiciously similar to Freemasonry. Rivera told his questioners that, by joining AMORC, he wanted to infiltrate a typical "Yankee" organization on behalf of Communism. However, he also claimed that AMORC was "essentially materialist , insofar as it only admits different states of energy and matter, and
4800-449: The university's chapel between 1923 and 1927. Fertile Land depicts the revolutionary struggles of Mexico's peasant (farmers) and working classes (industry) in part through the depiction of hammer and sickle joined by a star in the soffit of the chapel. In the mural, a "propagandist" points to another hammer and sickle. The mural features a woman with an ear of corn in each hand, which art critic Antonio Rodriguez describes as evocative of
4875-623: The walls of the house, his parents installed chalkboards and canvas on the walls to encourage him. After moving to Paris, Rivera met Angelina Beloff , an artist from the pre-Revolutionary Russian Empire. They married in 1911, and had a son, Diego (1916–1918), who died young. During this time, Rivera also had a relationship with painter Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska , who gave birth to a daughter named Marika Rivera in 1918 or 1919. Rivera divorced Beloff and married Guadalupe Marín as his second wife in June 1922, after having returned to Mexico. They had two daughters together: Ruth and Guadalupe . He
4950-469: Was New Masses . At the outset, New Masses adopted a loosely leftist position: "Among the fifty-six writers and artists connected in some way with the early issues of the New Masses , [Joseph] Freeman reports, only two were members of the Communist Party , and less than a dozen were fellow travelers ." There was, however, an eventual transformation in which this magazine of the “generic left”, with its numerous competing points of view, gradually became
5025-407: Was a student, and she was 22 years old when they married; Rivera was 42. Also in 1929, American journalist Ernestine Evans 's book The Frescoes of Diego Rivera , was published in New York City; it was the first English-language book on the artist. In December, Rivera accepted a commission from the American ambassador to Mexico to paint murals in the Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca , where the US had
5100-419: Was able to display them at several exhibitions. Rivera claimed in his autobiography that, while in Mexico in 1904, he engaged in cannibalism, pooling his money with others to "purchase cadavers from the city morgue" and particularly "relish[ing] women's brains in vinaigrette". This claim has been considered factually suspect or an elaborate lie. He wrote in his autobiography: "I believe that when man evolves
5175-424: Was among the founders of AMORC's Mexico City lodge, called Quetzalcoatl after an ancient indigenous god. He painted an image of Quetzalcoatl for the local temple. In 1954, Rivera tried to be readmitted into the Mexican Communist Party. He had been expelled in part because of his support of Trotsky , who had been exiled and assassinated years before in Mexico. Rivera was required to justify his AMORC activities. At
5250-447: Was born on December 8, 1886, as one of twin boys in Guanajuato , Mexico , to María del Pilar Barrientos and Diego Rivera Acosta, a well-to-do couple. His twin brother Carlos died two years after they were born. His mother María del Pilar Barrientos was said to have converso ancestry ( Spanish ancestors who were forced to convert from Judaism to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries). Rivera wrote in 1935: "My Jewishness
5325-418: Was cofounded by writer Eugene Gordon . During the 1932 national convention, the JRCs announced the opening of a "John Reed Club School of Art" in New York City at 450 Sixth Avenue . Classes were to start on November 14, 1932, for Monday evenings and Saturday afternoons. Instruction was open beyond JRC members. Instructors included Hugo Gellert , William Gropper , Louis Lozowick , and William Siegel. One of
5400-460: Was later merged into Masses & Mainstream (1948–1963). With the widespread economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression of 1929, many Americans were more receptive to socialist and leftist ideas. As a result, New Masses grew in circulation and became highly influential in literary, artistic, and intellectual circles. The magazine has been called “the principal organ of the American cultural left from 1926 onwards." New Masses
5475-543: Was launched in New York City in 1926 as part of the Workers (Communist) Party of America 's stable of publications, produced by a communist leadership but making use of the work of an array of independent writers and artists. The magazine was established to fill a void caused by the gradual transition of The Workers Monthly (successor to The Liberator ) into a more theoretically-oriented publication. The name of
5550-480: Was sometimes used in reference as badge of shame by anti-communists. Prominent women writers who were JRC members include: Jan Wittenber, Grace Lumpkin , Tillie Lerner, Meridel Le Sueur , Josephine Herbst , and Clara Weatherwax. Prominent African-American writers who were JRC members include: Eugene Gordon , Langston Hughes , Richard Wright , and Joe Jones . In her 1977 work The John Reed Clubs , Laurie Ann Alexandre stated: It would be inaccurate to call
5625-477: Was still married when he met art student Frida Kahlo in Mexico. They began a passionate affair and, after he divorced Marín, Rivera married Kahlo on August 21, 1929. He was 42 and she was 22. Their mutual infidelities and his violent temper resulted in divorce in 1939, but they remarried December 8, 1940, in San Francisco , California. A year after Kahlo's death, on July 29, 1955, Rivera married Emma Hurtado, his agent since 1946. In his later years Rivera lived in
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