The Sickle or the Paintbrush

Right after the war, the Belgian Communist Party enjoyed a particular popularity among artists and intellectuals. The revolutionary surrealists, who were to become the founders of the Cobra movement, put their art at the service of the Party, even though the latter tolerated them without really supporting them. But, as the Party’s popularity quickly decreased in Belgium, it had to put up with these artists. However, in spite of an increasingly weak position among the population, the Belgian Party was going to have to adapt to its French equivalent: in 1949, Claude Morgan asked the editorial committee of the Belgian edition of Les Lettres francaises to join the ranks of Socialist realism. This marks the break-up with Cobra and the beginning of the union with the group Forces Murales which, within the Belgian Party, will play an equivalent role as Aragon in France. But, when one takes a good look at it, the art of Forces Murales is closer to Edouard Pignon’s than to Andre Fougeron’s. Is there really then such a thing as Socialist Realism in Belgium? And if there is, how will Forces Murales react to a style opposite to theirs? The establishment of Socialist Realism in Belgium shows to what extend the Belgian Communist Party had to impose outside orders (coming from Paris, not from Moscow), with the risk of promoting an art not in accordance with the Soviet standards since no Belgian artist was totally in line with these patterns.