Summary
The proficiency and urgency of André Fougeron's drawings exemplify his powerful draughtsmanship. The Four Horsemen, like The Tournament and Homage to Franco!!! (Tate T07708, T07709), dates from the moment in his mid-twenties when he began to make a reputation in the context of the ideological realism codified as the Socialist Realist style of the International Communist Party. Together with many of his colleagues in Paris, Fourgeron was deeply concerned when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 as it seemed to presage the advance of totalitarian fascism in Europe.
Fougeron made The Four Horsemen in the following year. It is not explicitly related to the war in Spain, and may be seen as a broader commentary on the chaotic state of the political and social situation in Europe. The riders are evidently the four horsemen of the Apocalypse who signal the end of the world. The drawing achieves a visionary quality through the extreme contrasts of black and white. The three upper horsemen and their charges are silhouetted against the black sky, but this relationship is reversed for the fallen rider and horse who are darkened against the glowing curve of the earth. The skeletal men and slavering wild-eyed beasts are appropriately dramatic… (read more)
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