David A Siqueiros et all. 1975 “A Declaration of Social, Political and Aesthetic Principles” reprinted in reprinted in Art in Theory: 1900-2000. ed. Harrison and Wood pp. 406-407
“We side with those who demand the disappearance of an ancient, cruel system in which the farm worker produces food for the loud-mouthed politicians and bosses, while he startes; in which the industrial workers in the factories weave cloth and by the world of their hands make life comfortable for the pimps and prostitutes, while they crawl and freeze; in which the Indian soldier heroically leaves the land he has tilled and eternally sacrifices his life in a vain attempt to destroy the misery which has lain on his face for centuries.
The noble work of our race, down to its most insignificant spiritual and physical expressions, is native (and essentially Indian) in origin. With their admirable and extraordinary talent to create beauty, peculiar to themselves, the art of the Mexican people is the most wholesome spiritual expression in the world and this tradition is our greatest treasure. Great because it belongs collectively to the people and this is why our fundamental aesthetic goal must be to socialize artistic expression and wipe out bourgeois individualism.”
“We repudiate so-called easel painting and every kind of art favoured by ultra-intellectual circles, because it is aristocratic, and we praise monumental art in all its forms, because it is public property.
We proclaim that at this time of social change from a decrepit order to a new one, the creators of beauty must use their best efforts to produce ideological works of art for the people; art must no longer be the expression of individual satisfaction which it is today, but should aim to become a fighting, educative art for all.”
I include Siqueiros because he provides a voice from outside the European-American focus of the posts so far, and because he presents some interesting questions about the relationship between physical spaces of art and its effectiveness.
Siqueiros sees effective art as images that can embody and represent the specific struggle of the Mexican people, as a way to create collective action against the conditions of oppression imposed by capital and colonialism. Art can condense and represent the intellectual history of a people, and in the process of representing that history recognize collective oppression, providing the terms for liberation from it.
Second, He suggests that who sees art determines the effectiveness of its political content. Because of his stated goal of building capacity for collective action, art must be public to be effective. “Monumental art” exists in the public sphere, where it can become a unifying symbol for people. Art that is accessible to only a few, behind closed doors or sold loses its political capacity to unite people as a class.