L’Art pour l’Art or L’Art pour Tous? The Tension between Artistic Autonomy and Social Engagement in Les Temps Nouveaux, 1896-1903

Between 1896 and 1903, Jean Grave, editor of the anarchist journal LesTemps Nouveaux, published an artistic album of original prints, withthe collaboration of (avant-garde) artists and illustrators. While anarchisttheorists, including Grave, summoned artists to create social art,which had to be didactic and accessible to the working classes, artistswished to emphasize their autonomous position instead. Even thoughGrave requested ‘absolutely artistic’ prints in the case of this album,artists had difficulties with creating something for him, trying to combinetheir social engagement with their artistic autonomy. The artisticalbum appears to have become a compromise of the debate between theanarchist theorists and artists with anarchist sympathies