Left to their own devices: New Liverpool exhibition examines effect of socialism on art

Art Turning Left examines how left-wing values, from the French Revolution onwards, have affected the way art is produced and received

The city of Liverpool's most famous left-wingers may be Barnes and McManaman, but the great northern city's politics has always been stoutly left of centre. Much like the world of art – where Tracey Emin admitted to feeling like an 'outsider' for voting Conservative in 2010.

Those two traditions are brought together in a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool this month. Art Turning Left examines how left-wing values, from the French Revolution onwards, have affected the way art is produced and received.

The show includes work from Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane's touring people's art show, Folk Archive (including contemporary banner-maker Ed Hall's work, above) while older pieces include David's portrait of republican demagogue Jean-Paul Marat lying dead in the bath after being stabbed by a young royalist, and early protest pieces by NYC anti-establishment collective, Guerrilla Girls.

Art Turning Left is at Tate Liverpool, from Friday to 2 February, 2014