social realism - Social realism in France and the Soviet Union, Social realism elsewhere

A term current in art criticism since World War 2, referring to pictures which treat ‘real life’ subjects in a way that challenges the values of ‘bourgeois’ society. Courbet's ‘Stonebreakers’ (1849) may have been the first great social realist picture. In the 20th-c the term was applied to the US Ashcan School, and in Europe to Italian artist Renato Guttoso (1912–87).

Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts working class activities as heroic.

Many artists who subscribed to Social Realism were painters with socialist (but not necessarily Marxist) political views. The movement therefore has some commonalities with the Socialist Realism used in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, but the two are not identical - Social Realism is not an official art, and allows space for subjectivity. In certain contexts, Socialist Realism has been described as a specific branch of Social Realism.

Social Realism has been summarized as follows:

Social Realism developed as a reaction against idealism and the exaggerated ego encouraged by Romanticism. With a new sense of social consciousness, the Social Realists pledged to “fight the beautiful art”, any style which appealed to the eye or emotions. The public was outraged by Social Realism, in part, because they didn't know how to look at it or what to do with it (George Shi, University of Fine Arts, Valencia).

Social realism in France and the Soviet Union

Realism, a style of painting that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see, was a very popular art form in France around the mid to late 1800’s.

From that important trend of Realism in France, came the development of Social Realism, which was to dominate Soviet culture and artistic expression for over 60 years. Social Realism, representing socialist ideologies, was an art movement that represented social and political contemporary life in the 1930’s, from a left-wing standpoint. Social Realism was critical of the social environment that caused the conditions pictured, and denounced the “evil” Tsarist period. Ilya Repin, a famous Social Realist said that his art work was aimed “To criticise all the monstrosities of our vile society” of the Tsarist period. The Ideology behind Social Realism by depicting the heroism of the working class was to promote and spark revolutionary actions and to spread the image of optimism and the importance of productiveness. The Unions Newspaper, the literary Gazette, described Social Realism as “the representation of the proletarian revolution”. During Stalin’s rein it was most important to use socialist Realism as a form of propaganda in posters, as it kept people optimistic and encourage greater productive effort, a necessity in his aim of developing Russia into an industrialised nation. After the revolution of 1917 leaders of the newly formed communist party were encouraging experimentation of different art types, in search of one that would be recognised as the official soviet state art; This organisation endorsed the newly elected ideology of social realism. At first the public were outraged by the introduction of social Realism because people didn’t know how to look at the art or what to think about it. Any literary piece or painting that didn’t endorse the ideology of social realism was censored and/or banned. restricting people from expressing alternative geopolitical ideologies that differed to those represented in Socialist Realism. The decline of Social Realism came with fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Social realism elsewhere

The American painters Ben Shahn, Leon Bibel, the Australian painter Noel Counihan, the Mexican painters José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, the Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari, the Italian painter Renato Guttuso and the Portuguese painter Júlio Pomar are all examples of Social Realists.

Social Realism in cinema is exemplified by Italian directors Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Ermanno Olmi;

Dorothy Hewett, an Australian poet and playwright, and Carl Sandburg, an American poet and novelist can both be considered examples of a Social Realist author.