The Masses

Popular culture is anything from a period in time that is attached to the people and made by the

 people or for the people. It is the opposite to elite culture, where only the upper classes of the

time can appreciate it, such as works like ‘Benjamin West,  Death of General Wolf, 1771’.Popular culture is also not fixed in the artefact, but changes over time depending on the trends

and similar affections of the majority of society.

Politics is usually divided into two sides, The Left-wing, and the Right-wing. Left- wing politics

 broadly identifies itself with the interests of the masses at the same time as promoting social

equality, while the Right is seen to favor the interests of the established propertied classes and

 prioritises individual responsibility and the maintenance of natural and inherent inequalities

 between people.

The Masses published out of New York between 1911 – 17. It was not an official magazine of the

American Socialist Party, but it had strong socialist leanings and supported the rebellious

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) as well as aligning itself with groups in the Left-wing

category of politics such as; Marxists, Anarchists, Unionists, Utopianists, Liberal Reformists, and

Feminists.

The organization of The Masses was probably the most appealing aspect of the magazine to the

artists producing work for it. Because they were a self editorial and published magazine, so it was

run by the artists, for the people, giving them complete control over the content, which allowedthem to poke fun at politics without censorship.

Sloan, You’ve Done Very Well, 1914

The Masses was constantly under attack from the government for producing images like these

with very anti-establishment propaganda themes, and was eventually taken to court, by the Post

Office for treason (whose charges were dismissed) and by the government in 1917 which lead to

its collapse. Part of the success of The Masses was due to the loose, sketchy style of art published

as it was more appealing to the lower classes, bringing more comedy into the art. It was also

easier and cheaper to print, and rebelled against the Bourgeois.

Charles Dawn Gibson, Scribner’s cover, June 1896

Stuart Davis, Gee Mag, Masses Cover, June 1913

The masses went for a rough, sketchy, cartoon style to revolt against the Upper Classes refined

images. As you can see in Stuart Davis’ magazine cover drawn to poke fun as what the Upper 

Classes saw as ‘beautiful’ by staring two Lower Class women on the front of their magazine for 

comedic irony.

Sloan, Race Superiority, 1913

This cartoon is attempting to portray white people’s snobby attitudes towards African-Americans

even when they are better off than the belittlers. The race image of a stereotypical black person

sitting on a fence eating a watermelon could be itself considered racist. But I think the cartoon

style they portray people in is intended to be stereotypical, and exaggerate the characteristics of 

races/ people, so it works.