The term "political art" often has negative connotations. It is regularly associated with terms like "controversial", "propaganda" and Joseph Stalin's use of art as a fig leaf for objectionable politics. The Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, saw the function of art in a completely different way. Trotsky embraced the artists Stalin condemned as "bourgeois" and saw the Socialist Realist project as reactionary. Trotsky opposed any restrictions on artistic creation. British Trotskyist and art historian John Molyneux, says  that Marxists cannot - or should not try to - offer prescriptions on how to make art. So for revolutionaries and activists producing art today, can we establish any distinct formulae for making so-called political art, or does this merely resign them to the garbage heap of the Stalinists? VCA Masters in Fine Art candidate Azlan McLennan, has been described as "art trash" by the Herald Sun, "too doctrinaire" by The Age, "scandalmongering" by Art Monthly Australia, "warped and ignorant" by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council and even accused of "unethical conduct" by a VCA staff member. McLennan will attempt to unpack this question and more in his MFA examination exhibition, Trotsky vs. Stalin, from May 5 - 15 at the George Paton Gallery.