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Leonardo Da Vinci: artist, thinker and revolutionary – Part Three

Category: Analysis Published Date Written by Alan Woods

The artist’s task is not merely to mirror reality in an unthinking way but to impart a special meaning and feeling to what is being depicted: “The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason,” wrote Leonardo, “is like a mirror which copies everything placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence.”

Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 May 2012 22:14

Leonardo da Vinci: Man of the Renaissance – Part Two

Category: Analysis Published Date Written by Alan Woods

The true genius of Leonardo has only really begun to be understood in our own times. Yet surprisingly little is known about his life and person. But in the beginning he was severely disadvantaged.The known facts about his life are simply stated. Born in 1452 in the little Tuscan town of Vinci in the hills above the Arno, Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a lawyer. He never knew who his mother was, though she nursed him as a baby.

Last Updated on Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:10

[Video] Guernica, Picasso, art and revolution

Category: Analysis Published Date Written by Alan Woods

Today, on the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica, we republish a video of a speech by Alan Woods, of the International Marxist Tendency. The speech was made to University of Arts' London students at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, where a replica of Picasso's great painting of the massacre at Guernica was on display.

Last Updated on Friday, 27 April 2012 18:16

Leonardo da Vinci: Man of the Renaissance – Part One

Category: Analysis Published Date Written by Alan Woods

“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.” (Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519)

Last Updated on Friday, 04 May 2012 21:00

Georg Lukács, the ‘Dialectics of Nature’ and the ‘free creation of history

Category: Analysis Published Date Written by Daniel Morley

Lukács was an important influence on what is called 'western Marxism'. This was seen as a 'humanist' alternative to the dominant stalinist orthodoxy of the inter-War period and later. One of Lukács' most significant arguments was that (contrary to Engels) there can be no dialectics of nature. In an article first published in 2008, Daniel Morley examines the debate and goes into the contradictory relationship between Lukács' interpretation of Marxism and Stalinism.

Last Updated on Friday, 20 April 2012 07:02

Fightback

Leonardo Da Vinci: artist, thinker and revolutionary – Part Three

Leonardo da Vinci: Man of the Renaissance – Part Two

[Video] Guernica, Picasso, art and revolution

Leonardo da Vinci: Man of the Renaissance – Part One

Georg Lukács, the ‘Dialectics of Nature’ and the ‘free creation of history

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