Mesches, Arnold

MESCHES, ARNOLD (1923-2016). The visual artist Arnold Mesches was born in the Bronx, New York, and grew up in Buffalo. He provided incisive visual commentary about the major social and political issues of his lifetime, including war, economic injustice, social class inequalities, racism, and political persecution. Mesches was influenced by giant figures of European social art such as Pieter Brueghel, Francisco Goya, and Käthe Kollwitz, American Social Realist Ben Shahn, and the Mexican muralists José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera.

Although not as publicly visible as some of his peers, Mesches was widely recognized and respected by generations of American visual artists, especially those women and men who combined exemplary technical expertise and talent with a trenchant vision of the defects of American social, political, and economic life. And like many socially oriented artists of his generation, he was politically active during his lifetime, taking his views to the streets as well as to his canvases.

His vision led to the harassment and persecution that befell thousands of progressives during the anti-communist hysteria of the post-World War II era. FBI agents followed him because of his leftist views and actions. They took photos, tapped his phones, accepted reports from informers, and closely monitored his personal and professional activities. They also questioned neighbors, students, fellow artists and supposed friends about his views and actions. They also broke into his studio.

Mesches was an outspoken supporter of accused atomic spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. In 1989-1990, an extensive exhibition of Rosenberg-era artworks travelled throughout the United States. The show highlighted numerous artworks by major contemporary figures with international reputations, including Mesches.

In 1999, Mesches invoked the Freedom of Information Act to get access to his FBI files, corresponding with his years of harassment. He received 760 pages of files containing information about his activities and his personal life between 1945 and 1972, but nothing about the break-in at his studio. Much of the information was trivial: his children’s birthdates, makes of his cars, and friends’ names and acquaintances.

These files had large portions blacked out, probably the names of specific informers, some of whom likely had close personal contact with the artist: models who posed for him, students in his classes, neighbors, and others. What struck Mesches, beyond the sheer horror and lunacy of these FBI files, was their perverse aesthetic quality. He compared the large black slashes to Franz Kline’s abstract expressionist paintings and sketches, determining to transform these documents into durable works of socially conscious art.

The result was his most well- known artistic series, “The F.B.I. Files.” Mesches cut and pasted fifty-seven of the documents from his personal FBI files in a magnificent collection of more than fifty works. This nationally and internationally acclaimed exhibition travelled throughout the United States from 2002 to 2004. For the art itself, Mesches combined actual pages from his files with news clippings, personal photographs, 1950s-era commercial imagery, and hand-written text.

These works are highly colorful collages combining high visual appeal with chilling historical content. His popular cultural imagery juxtaposed cigarette ads, movie stars, robots and Batman with civil rights demonstrations, images of Malcolm X, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, Nikita Khrushchev, and others. This pastiche provides a remarkable glimpse into a troubled time of recent American history. Above all, Mesches’s dramatic visual language underscores the frightening political climate of the era.

Arnold Mesches lived a long and creative life. He created a valuable legacy for artists of conscience in all expressive forms.

Mesches, Arnold. The FBI Files. Brooklyn, New York: Hanging Loose Press, 2004.

Mesches, Arnold. A Life’s Work. Gainsville: University of Florida Press, 2013

Okun, Rob A. The Rosenbergs: Collected Visions of Artist and Writers. New York: Universe Publishing, 1998.