Talk:Social realism

Social Realism, is not a style nor a form it is a context or content of an art work. SR is also a form of "sociopolitical commentary" using art works as the vehicle. Social Realists believed that art is not only for decoration but can also be used as an instrument of attack and defense against an enemy. How... enlightening. 02:59, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

I find very arguable that "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso is a social realist painter, because I never read in any place this. User:Mistico

Literary Social Realism
I think this article needs to be modified to include more of the literary aspect of social realism, with such authors as Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Anzia Yezierska. Their contributions were not insignificant.

Jonathan Franzen (specifically Freedom and The Corrections) has been described as leading a revival of the social realist novel (see the Wikipedia article on Freedom), as well as www.bookslut.com/fiction/2010_09_016581.php; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/jonathan-franzen-freedom-overrated_b_819103.html; http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/18/jonathan-franzen-freedom-blake-morrison and more Eesome (talk) 23:34, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I agree. Can a disambiguation page be created if these are different enough movements? Brittanica has a separate page on it: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551369/social-realism  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.163.8.168 (talk) 14:06, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

Personal Bias
"Undistorted by personal bias ..."

Since when is any artform undistorted by personal bias? Social Realist art reflects personal bias by subject choice, composition, omission and inclusion of details, and as is the case with some Orientalists, absolute fabrication. Perhaps it should be clarified that this is an ideal not a fact of social realism?

Social realism vs. socialist realism
At the top of the article it is written "not to be confused with socialist realism", while the following article is one huge confusion with socialist realism. Social realism is not the officially endorsed state art of the Soviet Union and its sattelites; this is socialIST realism. This article is about socialist realism, and there is already an article about that subject on WP. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.89.96.86 (talk) 14:12, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure that it's a confusion with Socialist Realism, per se, but rather a far too detailed tangent. A simple mention that Social Realism branched into Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union would be appropriate, but the way it is, more than half the article is on something Social Realism ought "not to be confused with"! Toxicologia (talk) 02:44, 15 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yeah, confusing.
 * Also, this sounds very unlikely:
 * "The decline of Social Realism came with fall of the Soviet Union in 1991."

Calamitybrook (talk) 00:43, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Apologies to the above commenter but I'm afraid Social Realism did not branch into Socialist Realism. The two are completely different philosophies/movements in art. They should be treated in two seperate articles. For example, in Czechoslovak cinema during the periods of Stalinism and the reform communism of the sixties the kind of social realism to which this article refers (deriving partly from Italian Neorealism) arose as a direct challenge to the state mandated Socialist Realism. Part of the problem is the rather wooly definition of Social Realism in this article. It's not really refering to a particular school of thought, but instead to a rather broad idea, which permeates a large number of different national and international artistic movements. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.223.33.20 (talk) 15:23, 1 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Both of the articles (on Social and Socialist) Realism, are written in such way as if there were no art of Social Realism in USSR, only propaganda. As if people and artists of Soviet Union were somehow incapable to produce genuine art in the style of Social Realism. Sad. How come this can be considered neutral point of view? 81.5.100.82 (talk) 08:55, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

World View Completed?
I read and contributed to this article tonight. After looking over what others have posted and some additions I've made tonight, how does everybody feel about removing the global view tag? It almost seems as though there is now not enough American contributions to this movement. Happy Editing! Love, Anna (talk) 03:12, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

1970s in the Nordic countries
Social realism was very dominating in literature and drama, as well as in music in the Nordic countries in the 1970s. It would not be so easy for me to find sources to reflect this assertion, though. Hopefully others can do that, but it was so pervading for someone growing up in that decade that it was almost like a ubiquitous filter through which almost all of reality was presented. __meco (talk) 20:43, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

"In France and the Soviet Union" section removal
I'll be removing this section from the article. Not only is it unreferenced, but content regarding France would better serve in the Realism article, and the content regarding the Soviet Union would better serve in the Socialist realism article. This article's lead section differentiates these movements. R. Bartleby (talk) 21:35, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

"Artists associated with Social Realism" table
Basically I've listed the artists already named in the article. This is a rough first draft of the table, and may be edited for accuracy, scope, etc., particularly in regard to the 'Field(s)' and 'Years Active' columns. The artists have been listed alphabetically by last name, and the table should be maintainted accordingly. R. Bartleby (talk) 18:36, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

Who's "Morrison Brandinske"?
In the article, "Morrison Brandinske" is given as an example of some famous documentary photographer "of the late 19th century", but I could find no evidence that he existed.

Is this some sort of confusion with someone else? Y-barton (talk) 19:13, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Good catch, removed...Modernist (talk) 23:15, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

Also, I'm afraid that "George Shi, University of Fine Arts, Valencia", given as the author of a quote, doesn't exist in real life. A search on /"George Shi" academic valencia spain/ brings no results. Someone's playing a joke? Y-barton (talk) 12:16, 2 July 2016 (UTC)
 * That was added by an IP in March 2006....golden glove...Modernist (talk) 22:06, 2 July 2016 (UTC)

November 2018
I just noticed that two paragraphs under Art Movement are exactly the same as under WPA and Treasury art projects. Just putting it out there as I don't have time right now for a quick fix. Missvangie (talk) 13:57, 9 November 2018 (UTC)

Over emphasis on US Social Realists
I see that this article is heavily biased towards US Social Realists which I intend to gradually redress. I've started this process in a small way by changing the introduction the the Latin American section, removing the statement that referred to Latin America's influence on the US which belonged to the US section. This had the effect of diminishing Latin American Social Realists; almost a form of cultural appropriation. Generally the whole article should have better balance including more examples of work from the former USSR which at the moment is bundled with Europe. Only the west of the USSR could be considered part of Europe, not countries like today's Kazakhstan for example. Other regions and countries are similarly under represented naturalhomes (talk) 12:38, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

Is Social Realism a term?
The term is sometimes written "social realism" (adjective + noun) other times "Social Realism" (term). Is here someone with knowledge of art history to clear this? --Ruediger from Luebeck — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:67C:2D50:0:138D:D8EA:F38D:2734 (talk) 12:14, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

Criticism
Should there be a new section on the flaws of social realism in art? Espngeek (talk) 19:23, 19 September 2021 (UTC)