Social Realism was an art movement that depicted the hardships of life during the 1930s in the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. It aimed to bring attention to social issues like racial injustice and economic problems through paintings and photographs. Major American artists of the movement included Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Thomas Hart Benton, who created works portraying migrant workers, rural life, and political issues. While Social Realism declined, some argue it has seen a revival in contemporary films that similarly aim to depict everyday life and social issues.

2. Social Realism was an art movement that kicked off in American during the 1930’s.

3. Social Realism was used as a way to depict the hardships of life.

4. Examples: Racial injustices, economic problems, working conditions.

5. In the paintings, satire would often be used to express the issue the painting was addressing.

6. Social Realism existed very heavily all around the world, centered mainly in the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.

7. Social Realism developed as early as the 1850’s in Europe, but didn’t make its way into America until the turn of the century. Even then, it didn’t really take off until the 1930’s, when the Great Depression kicked in.

8. While the movement declined over the years and was considered “dead” in most countries, the movement wasn’t officially declared over until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

9. Influenced by:

10. The biggest influence on American Social Realism was the Regionalism art movement, which depicted suburban life. Regionalism depicted similar problems, and used a similar art style, but used much more color in the art, and didn’t have the same mood that Social Realism had.

11. Gustave Courbet is also credited for having an influence on Social Realism, because his art would sometimes depict hardships of life, and used little color, unlike Regionalism.

12. Major Artists:

13. Dorothea Lange

14. Walker Evans

15. Ben Shahn

16. Thomas Hart Benton

17. Dorothea Lange

18. Dorothea Lange became a major artist during the Great Depression.

19. She preferred photography as her style of art.

20. One characteristic she had was not naming her pieces. For whatever reason, she preferred to not name her art pieces.

21. Major Art Pieces:

23. Not unlike Lange, Evans became a big name during the Great Depression.

24. Also like Lange, he was a photographer.

25. Often times, his pieces were more like assignments, because he would be given a job to take pictures of a certain area or event.

26. Major Art Pieces:

28. Shahn was a strange artist who didn’t really prefer one specific type of art style. Instead, he experimented with multiple types, including drawing, painting, and photography.

29. He used his art as a way to express his political views on things that were happening in the country at the time.

30. As a result, a lot of his art pieces had something to do with racial injustices, and why they were so wrong.

31. Major Art Pieces:

33. He was one of the biggest American painters of the social realism movement.

34. As a child, Benton was encouraged by his father to go into law, rather than going to into painting. Nonetheless, Benton convinced his father to let him go to an art school.

35. He was a very influential artist for the time, known by most everyone. In fact, he’s known as the first artist to ever make it onto the title of Time magazine.

36. Later on in his life, he moved to Kansas City, to become a teacher for the Kansas City Art Institution.

37. Major Art Pieces:

39. While Social Realism as an art movement is technically considered dead, there are still films coming out that are considered to be Social Realism, although most of these films are British films.

40. Some artists are claiming that a rebirth to social realism, as they’re calling Contemporary Social Realism, has begun. This movement depicts general aspects of life, rather than using the depressing aspects used in the last movement. Similar styles that were seen in Social Realism are used in this movement too, though.

41. A lot of the original art from the movement is being portrayed, and parodied, in a lot of today’s popular culture.