ben morea

Surrealism and anarchism, past and present

“The imaginary is what tends to become real.” ― André Breton

From Freedom News UK

Last June, about fifty people gathered in the Eberhardt Press print shop in Portland, Oregon, to meet with legendary American activist Ben Morea and view a pop-up exhibition of his paintings. Morea was one of the founders of the anarchist affinity group Black Mask in New York in 1966 and also the catalyst for subsequent direct-action collectives like Up Against the Wall Motherfucker in 1968. He was a driving force behind the closing of the Museum of Modern Art in ‘66 and the occupation of the Fillmore East theatre in ’68, and his uncompromising anticapitalist and antiracist activism set the standard for what engaged radicalism could accomplish in the Vietnam War era. An artist since the early 1960s, his austere paintings and satirical graphics are everywhere visible in the distinctive pages of the Black Mask zine (ten issues; New York; November 1966–May 1968).

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