User:Rsonderman/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Socialist realism

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this topic as it is a personal research interest of mine since undergrad. As an art historical genre it is often oversimplified by Western scholars due to homogeneity of artistic style, however, it has a rich history and development like any other art historical genre.

Evaluate the article
Lead Section

The introductory sentence to the article provides a brief description of the type of art produced, the timeframe and relevant geographical areas associated with this genre. It overall clearly describes the topic of the article. The lead however, does not provide brief descriptions of the article's key topics, instead providing further clarifying information about the definition of the term. It does not specify any key artists/artworks or outline that socialist realism affects more than just visual arts. The lead provides information on 'social realism' to distinguish this similar term from socialist realism, without further mentioning social realism in the article. Overall, the lead is concise and gives an overview of what the term means.

Content

The article's content is relevant to the topic and covers many perspectives on the topic ranging in geographical region, gender and political organisation. As this article is about a historical genre, the information does not have to be as up-to-date as other subject material. However, the addition of the feminist perspective in the 'Gender and Socialist Realism' shows a progression of art historical methodology in the area. Also examining many of the sources listed in the References, they appear to mainly span from 2000-2018, which is fairly recent scholarship. The article does not hold any information about the Institute of Russian Realist Art, which is a large gallery focused solely on this topic. This article addresses issues related to underrepresented areas of art history, as well as gender perspectives within the genre.

Tone and Balance

While mainly neutral in tone, there are some biases in scholarship towards viewing Socialist Realism as a 'lesser' genre of art that lacks creativity due to its specifications in form and subject matter. There seems to be an underrepresentation of opinions that highlight the development of Socialist Realism as a unique art movement with changes to artistic style and subject matter. This is most likely due to a strong historiography of Western scholars who viewed the movement in comparison to artistic movements occurring at the same time in Western Europe and America. The article does not really attempt to persuade the viewer to one side or another intentionally, more so, there is just a lack of scholarship from non-English sources.

Sources and References

Many facts seem to be back up by a citation. However, there are many areas that lack citations, particularly in the 'Soviet Union' section. There is a very thorough list of academic scholars and big name museums in the references list. However, all sources appear to be in English, or at least translated to English, which may affect their content or wording. The sources do appear to be current, most spanning between 2000 and 2018, which for a historical topic is decent timeframe. Most sources appear to be quality, peer edited journals or reference material from top dictionaries. While relatively few of the sources have links, they appear to be in working order. Most are behind paywalls though.

Organization and Writing Quality

The article appears to be fairly well written. The sentences are grammatically correct and the ideas expressed tend to make sense. The subsections appear to reflect the main concepts presented in the topic. Some sections could be placed in better locations for the flow of the narrative. For example, the 'Debate within Soviet Art' could be placed at a later point in the article or retitled to specify dissident groups at the height of Socialist Realism as a movement.

Images and Media

The images support the text of the article and show off the range of the Socialist Realist genre. They are all nicely captured to either show the title and creator of the work or describe the scene depicted in the photograph. Some of the images are fairly small, which makes them hard to see or more easily overlooked. The photographs appear to be following Wikipedia's copyright violations. There could be better citations for some of the artwork to include their current locations, dates, medium, etc.

Talk Page Discussion

Most of the conversations in the article relate to additional topics that could be brought into the article or clarifications of subtopics. There is a lot of talk about including an architecture section, or additions of minority groups such as women and LGBT groups. This article is part of several WikiProjects, the most important three being WikiProject Russia/Language and literature/Visual arts/Performing Arts, WikiProject Soviet Union and WikiProjects Socialism. It is also included in Politics, Literature, Economics, Organised Labor and Sociology projects. This is a similar way of viewing the subject as I have approached it in past classes. I have mainly looked at this topic from an art historical lens.

Overall Impressions

I think the article provides a good overview of the movement and its legacy. It covers a wide geographic span, which is helpful since most pieces tend to focus specifically on the USSR (specifically Moscow and St Petersburg). The addition of the women's relation to Socialist Realism was a very nice addition that I had not been expecting.

I think the article could be improved by filling in the missing citations. There is one subsection that is left completely empty (Studio of military artists named after M. B. Grekov) that could either be filled in or deleted if no information can be found. As pointed out in the Talk Page, it would be helpful to add a section on Socialist Realist architecture, as this is a major movement that is currently overlooked. The addition books and citations in Russian could be interesting if a bilingual scholar felt inclined to join in.

I think the article is fairly complete. More information could be added into a number of sections and there is still room to develop new subsections that have not yet been touched. However, the information that is currently here is well thought out and cited. The writing is cohesive and gets to the heart of the topic.