At the Service of Fascist Propaganda: Italian Artists and the 1937 International Exposition in Paris

The fascism-culture relationship has for a good while been read under the interpretation of Mussolin’s regime as “imperfect totalitarianism”. As is generally recognized, Italian fascism did not promote an art of the state. The affirmation that fascism did not codify its own official style has led to the belief that Italian art enjoyed full freedom of expression. Compared to other dictatorial regimes, fascism was therefore characterized by an extraordinary expressive liberty conceded to its artists. This essay discusses the Fascist concept of art developed during the twenties and the thirties, analyses the fascist quest for the monopoly of artistic organization and form of expressions, and then, as a study case, focuses on the relationship between fascism and artists in the organization of the Italian participation at the Paris International Exhibition of 1937. In his conclusions, the author argues that, despite a certain degree of aesthetic pluralism, each artist placed himself in the ideological-cultural horizon of fascism and thought of contributing to the production of the “new art” of the “fascist era” advocated by Mussolini.