Social Realism

What is Social Realism?● The Social Realist political movement and artistic explorations flourished primarily

during the 1930s, a time of global economic depression○ Two defining events of the 1930s, the Great depression and the rise of Fascism

in Europe, prompted many American artists to turn away from abstract art and to adopt realistic styles of painting

● Social Realists built on the legacies of Gustave Courbet and Francisco Goya in their politically charged and radical social critiques.

● With the lingering effects of the Great Depression of 1929, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided many struggling artists with patronage, a sense of community, and the mandate to paint realistically.

○ Social Realists joined together to publish magazines, organize unions, and publicly agitate for the importance of their revolutionary work, the role of the artist within society, and radical anti-capitalistic change for America.

https://youtu.be/se8oOGz-rs8

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Characteristics

● While there was a variety of styles and subjects within Social Realism,○ the artists were united in their attack on the status quo and social power

structure. ■ Social Realists envisioned themselves to be workers and laborers, similar

to those who toiled in the fields and factories. Often clad in overalls to symbolize unity with the working classes,

■ the artists believed they were critical members of the whole of society, rather than elites living on the margins and working for the upper crust.

○ focused on the human figure and human condition.

Class Activity

Is it Social Realist?

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Yes

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Artists

William GropperDorothea Lange

Edward Hopper

William Gropper (1897-1977)

● Known for his expressive paintings of American life and satirical cartoons of politicians

● Forced to testify because of accused use of Communist ideas in painting America: Its Folklore

● "I began to realize that you don't paint with color, you paint with conviction, freedom, love, and heart-aches, with what you have.”

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)

● Was a photographer whose portraits of displaced farmers during the Great Depression greatly influenced later documentary photography

● Her photographs of migrant workers were often

presented with captions featuring the words of the

workers themselves

Edward Hopper(1882-1967)

● He studied with William Merritt Chase, a leading American Impressionist painter, and with Robert Henri, who exhorted his students to paint the everyday conditions of their own world in a realistic manner

● Widely acknowledged as the most important realist painter of twentieth-century America

● His work demonstrates that realism is not merely a literal or photographic copying of what we see, but an interpretive rendering

NighthawksBy Edward Hopper

1942

84.1 × 152.4 cm (33 1/8 × 60 in.)

Oil on Canvashttps://youtu.be/7j5pUtRcNX4

Migrant MotherBy Dorothea lange

● This Picture has become an icon of the Great

Depression

● She wanted to capture the suffering she was seeing

around her that was caused by the Great depression

and the dust bowl.

● Part of a series of 6 pictures

Youngstown StrikeBy William Gropper

● this painting depicts not the 1937 strike, but rather a similar

incident that occurred in an early 1916 steel strike in

Youngstown.

○ This reflects the long-term commitment of Gropper, and

of many other artists of the Great Depression, to depict

past incidents that could logically serve to illustrate

primary causal forces for the social disruptions of the

1950s.

● The movements of the excited figures appear artificial, yet it is

by the use of such rhetorical gestures that Gropper could best

express his outrage. At the same time, the figural organization,

the strong colors, the body gestures and facial expressions, the

powerfully bright light, contrasting with the almost black

background,, effectively echoing the suffering and desperation

of the period.

● Youngstown Strike is a powerful work that forcefully

communicates the mood of despair which so characterized the

Great Depression.