,
News Stand, ink (1952) In Belgium, early representatives of social realism are found in the work of 19th century artists such as
Constantin Meunier and
Charles de Groux. In Britain, artists such as the American
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, as well as English artists
Hubert von Herkomer and
Luke Fildes had great success with realist paintings dealing with social issues and depictions of the "real" world. Artists in Western Europe also embraced social realism in the early 20th century, including Italian painter and illustrator
Bruno Caruso, German artists
Käthe Kollwitz,
George Grosz,
Otto Dix, and
Max Beckmann; Swedish artist
Torsten Billman; Dutch artists
Charley Toorop and
Pyke Koch; French artists
Maurice de Vlaminck,
Roger de La Fresnaye,
Jean Fautrier, and
Francis Gruber and Belgian artists
Eugène Laermans and
Constant Permeke. The political polarization of the period resulted in social realism's distinction from
socialist realism becoming less obvious in public opinion, and by the mid-20th century
abstract art had replaced it as the dominant movement in both Western Europe and the United States.
Russia and the Soviet Union ,
Barge Haulers on the Volga 1870–1873 The French
Realist movement had equivalents in all other Western countries, developing somewhat later. In particular, the
Peredvizhniki or
Wanderers group in Russia who formed in the 1860s and organized exhibitions from 1871 included many realists such as
Ilya Repin and had a great influence on Russian art. From that important trend came the development of
socialist realism, which was to dominate
Soviet culture and artistic expression for over 60 years. Socialist realism, representing
socialist ideologies, was an art movement that represented social and political contemporary life in the 1930s, from a left-wing standpoint. It depicted subjects of social concern; the
proletariat strugglehardships of everyday life that the working class had to put up with, and heroically emphasized the values of the loyal communist workers. The ideology behind social realism, communicated 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. Keeping people optimistic meant creating a sense of
patriotism, which would prove very important in the struggle to produce a successful socialist nation. The Unions Newspaper, the
Literaturnaya Gazeta, described social realism as "the representation of the proletarian revolution". During Joseph Stalin's reign, it was considered most important to use socialist realism as a form of
propaganda in posters, as it kept people optimistic and encouraged greater productive effort, a necessity in his aim of developing
Russia into an industrialized nation. , 1930
Vladimir Lenin believed that art should belong to the people and should stand on the side of the proletariat. "Art should be based on their feelings, thoughts, and demands, and should grow along with them", said Lenin. He also believed that literature must be part of the proletariat's common cause. A wide-ranging debate on art took place; the main disagreement was between those who believed in "Proletarian Art" which should have no connections with past art coming out of bourgeois society, and those (most vociferously
Leon Trotsky) who believed that art in a society dominated by working-class values had to absorb all the lessons of bourgeois art before it could move forward at all. The taking of power by Joseph Stalin's faction had its corollary in the establishment of an official art: on 23 April 1932, headed by Stalin, an organization formed by the central committee of the Communist Party developed the
Union of Soviet Writers. This organization endorsed the newly designated ideology of social realism. By 1934, all other independent art groups were abolished, making it nearly impossible for someone not involved in the Union of Soviet Writers to get work published. Any literary piece or painting that did not endorse the ideology of social realism was censored or banned. This new art movement, introduced under Joseph Stalin, was one of the most practical and durable artistic approaches of the 20th century. With the communist revolution came also a cultural revolution. It also gave Stalin and his Communist Party greater control over Soviet culture and restricted people from expressing alternative geopolitical ideologies that differed to those represented in socialist realism. The decline of social realism came with the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. == In film ==