artists

The Butte aux Cailles in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, lies south of the Seine. It is one of the least known old neighbourhoods of the French capital, like its working class cousins north of the river – Batignolles, Belleville and Menilmontant. The Butte rises gently beside the now subterranean course of Paris’s forgotten river the Bievre.

Margaret Michaelis’s prowess as a photographer has been hidden away until recently. Recent exhibitions in Canberra, Australia in 1988 and 2005 and in Valencia, Spain in 2005 have begun to dispel this cloud of obscurity.

Augustus John and the Anarchists
Augustus John has often been cited as one of a few from the British artistic and intellectual milieu to have identified themselves with the anarchist movement. But Augustus John’s relationship with that movement was as ambivalent as his own life.

“We have as our flag the love of culture, the cult of fraternity and liberty”

At the end of the 19th century, many French writers were attracted to anarchism. Some of them were fascinated by the bomb attacks of “propaganda by deed” anarchists Ravachol and Emile Henry, and wanted to write a book that would be a literary bomb, destroying the foundations of the religion, the family and the nation state.

Camille Pisarro
Born 10 July 1830 – St. Thomas, Caribbean, died 13 November 1903 - Paris, France

At the end of the nineteenth century, anarchist ideas had a notable influence not just among workers but also in literary and artistic circles in France.

Mark Rothko
Born Marcus Rothkowitz, 25 September 1903 - Russia, died 25 February 1970 - New York, USA

Marcus Rothkowitz was born to Jewish parents in Czarist Russia on September 25, 1903 in Dvinsk. His father emigrated to America when he was ten.

Paul Signac
Born 11 November 1863 - Paris, France, died 15 August 1935 - Paris, France

"In his last years Morris modified his long-held anti-Parliamentarian position, agreeing that the time had now come for the formation of a Socialist Party. He did not rejoin the Socialist Democratic Federation (S.D.F.) but ended his breach with Hyndman to the extent of writing several articles for the S.D.F. journal, Justice. In this one he looks back over his life and sums up his development." - A. L. Morten.

Baj was devoted to anarchism and this expressed itself in his works. His vast canvases were beautiful and often funny. When it was exhibited in Italy in 1972, his Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli (thrown from a police station window and made famous by Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist) led to police commissioners marching in and closing down the gallery.