Are there popular artists, or other cultural personas, who’s political engagement and/or positions are largely sweeped under the rug in your countries?

Here I’m only thinking of artists who are widely popular, or have a certain status as ‘national icons’ or the likes, but who’s politics often are ignored, despite them perhaps featuring more, or less, prominently in their art.

For Denmark I can think of a couple of examples. A big one is perhaps the writer Martin Andersen Nexø (1869-1954,) who wrote famous novels like _Pelle Erobreren_(1906-1910,) later adapted into a movie by Bille August, which won an Academy Award in 1988, and _Ditte Menneskebarn_(1917-21,) both of which are seen as core canonical works in the Danish cultural canon. These books are often referred to by both social democratic and bourgeois (a term used in Denmark as a catch-all for liberal and conservative politicians) politicians, but Andersen Nexø was a devoted Stalinist, who, to his death, was a member of the Communist Party of Denmark, and his works contain, sometimes very explicit, criticisms of the existing order. (Another Stalinist is the Norwegian Nordahl Grieg, who wrote the famous _Til ungdommen_, or _Kringsatt av fiender_)

Another one is the beloved poet Halfdan Rasmussen(1915-2002,) most famous for his children’s poems and his songs. You’d be hard pressed to find a Danish child who didn’t have a copy of Rasmussen’s _Halfdans ABC_(1967,) a collection of poems over the Danish alphabets, and most Danes can recite many of them from memory. Rasmussen however was also very politically engaged. He was an outspoken anarcho-syndicalist his entire life, edited the memoirs of revolutionary syndicalist leader Christian Christensen’s, and was engaged in leftist anti-EU movements. He also wrote an array of, in his own words, “sad poems,” which also contained overtly political messages, and his most popular song, _Noget om helte_, is explicitly pacifist and anti-authoritarian.

On the other end of the spectrum is the priest, poet and dramatist Kaj Munk(1898-1944) who is, especially among liberals and conservatives, a symbol of the Danish resistance to Nazi occupation. He was killed by the Gestapo for his ardent criticism and opposition to the occupation (though without ever engaging in the armed resistance,) but his poems and plays, which contain deep theological, philosophical and political discussions, are beloved to this day. It is however often forgotten, that Kaj Munk himself was a convinced fascist, admiring the likes of Mussolini and Hitler (until the late 30es,) though he, like a lot of our contemporary fascists and reactionaries, insist on themselves as not being ideological, or not belonging to any ‘-isms’.

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Do you have similar persons in your countries? Who’s your local Frida Kahlo? (Another communist, who’s works are often presented without the communist intentions she explicitly stated they were created with.)