Social Realism Art Movement: 5 Famous Social Realist Artists

Social Realism is the practice of using art—primarily visual art—to highlight political and social issues. Social Realism takes a critical look at the poverty, injustice, and corruption within a society. Social Realism is distinct from socialist realism, an art movement developed in the mid-twentieth century and promoted by Joseph Stalin to depict an idealized version of everyday life in the Soviet Union.

The social Realism art movement was a Depression-era American art movement that took place between World War I and World War II. The movement included filmmakers, poets, photographers, painters, and cartoonists, all of whom were dedicated to representing real-life subject matter in their respective art forms. The Social Realism movement grew alongside American Regionalism, an art movement focused on the rural working class and popularized by artists such as Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton.

Although the Social Realism art movement became prominent in America throughout the 1930s, its origins trace back decades earlier.

• The Ashcan School: In the late nineteenth century, a group of American artists founded the Ashcan School in New York City. Artists like John Sloan and George Luks captured life in New York’s working-class neighborhoods. The Ashcan School remained active well into the early twentieth century, influencing the Social Realism movement.
• Government programs and commissioned work: In the throes of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the New Deal in 1933. As part of the New Deal, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) commissioned work from Social Realist artists like Philip Evergood and John Steuart Curry. It ran from 1933 to 1934. In 1935, Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed thousands of artists until it dissolved in 1943.
• A critique of American society and politics: Throughout the 1930s, artists associated with the Social Realist movement used their work as a form of social protest. Mexican muralists like José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros and left-wing artists in America focused on subversive subject matter to criticize injustice and corruption.
• Decline after World War II: By the late 1940s, Abstract Expressionism had replaced Social Realism as the dominant art movement. However, the movement evolves as artists continue to grapple with social issues in their work today.

If you’re interested in Social Realism, explore some of the iconic artworks to come from the movement.

1. 1. Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange (1936): Photographer Dorothea Lange captured this powerful image of a migrant mother with her children while working on a series commissioned by a government program during the Great Depression.
2. 2. The Subway by José Clemente Orozco (1928): This oil-on-canvas painting depicts solemn commuters sitting on a shadowy train in New York.
3. 3. The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti by Ben Shahn (1932): Part of a 23-painting series, The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti features three powerful men standing over the corpses of two Italian immigrants executed in 1927 after an unfair trial.
4. 4. Proletarian Victim by David Alfaro Siqueiros (1933): Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros created this stark painting featuring a naked woman bound and shot in the head.

Several influential Social Realist artists helped define the movement.

1. 1. Ben Shahn (1898–1969): One of the most prolific painters, graphic artists, and photographers of the Social Realism movement, Ben Shahn emigrated to America from Lithuania with his family when he was eight years old. After serving an apprenticeship with Diego Rivera, Shahn went on to create iconic political artworks. Many of his works are still on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
   
2. 2. William Gropper (1897–1977): Painter and cartoonist William Gropper created satirical illustrations for communist and socialist magazines like New Masses and The Liberator. A versatile artist, Gropper worked in several other mediums throughout his lifetime, including murals and printmaking.
3. 3. Aaron Douglas (1899–1979): A significant figure within the Harlem Renaissance movement, Aaron Douglas’s paintings and illustrations captured themes of racial injustice during the 1920s and ’30s.
4. 4. Raphael Soyer (1899–1987): After emigrating to the United States from Russia with his family in 1912, Raphael Soyer pursued painting, capturing personal and psychological American scenes.
   
5. 5. Walker Evans (1903–1975): Like Dorothea Lange, photographer Walker Evans worked with another New Deal program called the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to capture images of rural life during the Great Depression.

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