Varian Fry

In the history of modern art Varian Fry is barely a footnote, yet for a number of reasons his story seems to connect with the very early moments of the birth of the inner bubble that was about to inflate as the domain of indentured avant-garde culture. His 1946 book on his fairly brief adventures as an American Scarlet Pimpernel in Marseilles (1940/1) were recently re-published after having attracted little interest at the time - which in itself is odd. To outline his background, he was an Ivy League Classics scholar who was given the task, with no training, of going alone to Marseilles with some funds in order to help get out as many stranded intellectuals, cultural figures and professionals as possible. The prevailing government was Vichy, with whom the US had diplomatic relations since it had not entered the war - it did so later after Hitler declared war on the US. Varian Fry set up escape routes, legal and illegal, saving over 1500 people in 13 months. His best-known group was from the avant-garde arts: Chagall, Ernst, Breton and others in the company of Peggy Guggenheim who acted as their promoter and collector ; not as wealthy as the Guggenheim Museum branch she relied on this group to make her name as much as they relied on her. During her later life she seemed to go out of her way to not credit who saved her (in fact she was never in real danger since as the relative of an important American family she would have had the protection of the US consulate if Vichy had acted against her. But others in the entourage were open to arrest and deportation and Fry had to intervene personally to save Chagall from a surprise round-up, he was already in prison. The effect of the safe arrival of this group in New York can hardly be exaggerated - their presence and professional savoir faire was put to establishing themselves as quickly as possible in a new situation which no-one knew how long could last. Duchamp was long established there so his advice would have been invaluable. Trying to get the European avant-garde accepted in a way which involved some kind of official support would seem reasonable and Breton was soon working in a Government office which Fry identifies in the first edition of his book as the OSS (fore-runner to the CIA) in some Voice of America capacity it seems. These facts have been contested but I see no reason for Varian Fry to lie, which in any case was against his nature. At the time it might have seemed a perfectly reasonable way to earn some money, but here speculation takes over. Did he write reports about the way an avant-garde worked or simply talk to people? Why not - the linguistic Formalist, Jacobsen described in an interview for French documentary archives, being questioned by a committee about his kind of work - since he had such a high standing in Europe. They seemed to be rather naive, thinking being a big intellectual meant your brains could be put to immediate practical use - the emphasis was on utility. Perhaps someone said re. the avant -gardists, “Perhaps we can use that idea in the service of post-war policy?”. After all, they had in New York all the various skills which would be needed to learn how to do it for a minimum outlay. Meanwhile Peggy Guggenheim had opened a gallery to present her people, which co-incidentally also introduced Jackson Pollock i.e. the first move was already made: to equate a local with the big European names. This period is well-documented, so why was the Varian Fry role not widely known as a daring American patriot? For still-unclear reasons he found himself black-listed and it was to remain that way for the rest of his life. In the 90’s those representing the Jews he helped escape made Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, publicly apologize for that having happened. One can only assume he was suspect for helping too many Left-wingers and Communists, but they were the ones being persecuted. André Breton had been a member of the Communist Party but fortunately for him had been expelled from the Comintern by Stalin. None of Varian Fry’s most famous beneficiaries came to his aid in the years he suffered this injustice. Peggy Guggenheim could have contacted officials easily. It’s clear that her role was to be a designated European leading figure post-war - a bridge between the two groups of the avant-garde. Wittingly or unwittingly it’s hard to believe that Duchamp wasn’t partially or wholly clued-in. My own guess is that very early on in the war plans, and before they entered, a conflict had arisen between the Hoover-influenced right, suspicious of every socialist and communist as a threat to capitalism and the group which proposed disarming the left-leaning liberals with a carrot rather than a stick. The liberals greatest criticism of the Soviet Union seemed to be lack of artistic freedom - so the idea was to give it to them in its extreme form: the difficult avant-garde. Then natural resistance would be de-fanged. It might even have been proposed by the British who were involved in teaching the OSS (and later the CIA) how a Hidden Hands policy could be very effective at home and abroad. The quality of the CIA people sent to deal with literary culture in London doesn’t indicate they invented strategy. Hence the Spender story is very useful. Somehow Varian Fry got caught between the two phases, during which McCarthyism would have hardened the US black lists - those on it were stuck with the consequences for many years. His story indicates the cross-over point where he rescued the people who would prove very influential.