England's Rivera: The Lost Murals of Viscount Hastings 1931–1939

© 2013, Copyright Taylor Francis Group, LLC. Beyond his work as Diego Rivera's assistant in San Francisco and Detroit, little has been written about the British mural painter Viscount ‘Jack’ Hastings, creator of the Worker of the Future Upsetting the Economic Chaos of the Present at the Marx Memorial Library in London. Drawing on a range of documentary sources and discussing some hitherto unknown murals in both the US and the UK, this article will examine the development of Hastings’ work as an artist and political activist. A key theme of this article will be to explore Hastings’ role in attempts to promote mural painting and socially committed art in England through his involvement with the Artists International Association and his writings for Left Review and Architectural Review. This article will also examine the relationship between Hastings’ work and his political interests, which culminated in his abandoning his artistic career in order to serve as a junior minister in Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government.