Art is a Weapon

Art is a Weapon takes you back to an Australia gripped by the Cold War. Amid propaganda for and against communism, artists turned to an image familiar to most Australians; the Southern Cross flag of the Eureka Stockade.

The Art

Section of the AIAW linocut

The Communist Party encouraged art that was politically aligned with its philosophy and policies. In the 1930s it had its own art group, the Workers’ Art Club. This group published one issue of a magazine, Masses, emblazoned with the masthead ‘Art is a weapon’: a means to show the working class that the future lay with communism.

The later, short-lived Melbourne Popular Art Group had similar aspirations. Ailsa O’Connor was an artist actively associated with the Social Realists and was a member of the Communist Party. Noel Counihan, who made three of the linocuts in this portfolio, maintained his commitment to Social Realist principles throughout his long career and is today the best known member of the group.

Their portfolio of prints and accompanying booklet on Eureka were issued to commemorate the centenary of the Eureka Stockade; to ‘celebrate men standing together, in mateship, to defend their rights and liberties.’ This was a message of immediate and pointed relevance to the Left in 1950s Australia.

Most of the prints in this portfolio are linocuts. This is a very simple and accessible way of making a print where a design is cut into the surface of soft linoleum. Ink is then applied to the surface of the raised area which is then printed onto paper. As the surface of the linocut wears, its ability to carry the ink decreases and the surface of the printed image loses quality. In this portfolio a mix of early and late prints are collected together; the quality of some of the prints is much higher than some of the others. Was this the Communist Party’s way of expressing their belief in equality for all?

Each of the prints was originally unframed, and presented as pages of the portfolio.

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The Artists

The Cause

A Rebel Flag

The flag chosen by the miners to represent them at Eureka has now become one of the most famous symbols in Australian history. The flag shows a representation of the Southern Cross (Crux), a constellation of which appears in the sky all over the southern hemisphere. The five brightest stars of Crux have become represented in the design, although many dimmer stars are also part of the constellation.

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Nothing To Lose But Your Chains

The artists that created the Eureka portfolio belonged to the Melbourne Popular Art Group. Although not a part of it, the MPAG had strong connections to the Communist Party of Australia. Founded in 1920 by a group including Jock Garden and Adela Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, the British suffragist), the CPA advocated a socialist state in Australia.

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Rabble, Revolution, Representation

Early on 3 December 1854 British military forces and police stormed a stockade built by protesting miners at Eureka on the Ballarat goldfields, leaving about thirty diggers and troops dead. Ever since, various cultural and artistic depictions of the Eureka Stockade have attempted to portray the event in a way consistent with a particular ideology or cause.

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