Semyon Fridlyand, "Stacking flax on the vast "New Life" collective farm in Kostromo, NE of Moscow, post-war.
Showing posts with label soviet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soviet. Show all posts
Friday, February 22, 2008
(social vs. socialst) realism
Socialist Realism
Socialist Realism, the art produced in accord with the propagandist purposes of the Soviet Communist dictatorship from 1932. It was proclaimed the officially approved artistic idiom in 1934 at the First All-Union Congress, but no clear stylistic guidelines were given. Rather it was defined negatively, in opposition to the ‘formalism’ and ‘intuitivism’ of contemporary movements. These influences were defined as foreign and alien to Marxist theory, particularly during the patriotic aftermath of the Second World War. Typical subjects included large-scale factories, the new collectivist farms, and heroic representations of Stalin as found in The Morning of our Motherland by Fyodor Shurpin (1948; Moscow, Tretyakov Gal.). Such paintings were often on a monumental scale, with easily identifiable figures painted in a superficially naturalistic mode. Idealized depiction was intended to convey to the proletariat the idea that the Soviet dictatorship had succeeded in extinguishing all societal evils. This form of cultural control diminished in Russia after Stalin's death in 1953 but resemblances were later to be found under similar regimes in South-East Asia. (From www.groveart.com, [from OCWA])
and from Encylopedia Brittanica:
Socialist Realism follows the great tradition of 19th-century Russian realism in that it purports to be a faithful and objective mirror of life. It differs from earlier realism, however, in several important respects. The realism of Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov inevitably conveyed a critical picture of the society it portrayed (hence the term critical realism). The primary theme of Socialist Realism is the building of socialism and a classless society. In portraying this struggle, the writer could admit imperfections but was expected to take a positive and optimistic view of socialist society and to keep in mind its larger historical relevance.
A requisite of Socialist Realism is the positive hero who perseveres against all odds or handicaps. Socialist Realism thus looks back to Romanticism in that it encourages a certain heightening and idealizing of heroes and events to mold the consciousness of the masses. Hundreds of positive heroes—usually engineers, inventors, or scientists—created to this specification were strikingly alike in their lack of lifelike credibility. Rarely, when the writer's deeply felt experiences coincided with the official doctrine, the works were successful, as with the Soviet classic Kak zakalyalas stal (1932–34; How the Steel Was Tempered), written by Nikolay Ostrovsky, an invalid who died at 32. His hero, Pavel Korchagin, wounded in the October Revolution, overcomes his health handicap to become a writer who inspires the workers of the Reconstruction. The young novelist's passionate sincerity and autobiographical involvement lends a poignant conviction to Pavel Korchagin that is lacking in most heroes of Socialist Realism.
& Social realism
Term used to refer to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and film makers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions. In general it should not be confused with Socialist realism, the official art form of the USSR, which was institutionalized by Joseph Stalin in 1934, and later by allied Communist parties worldwide. Social realism, in contrast, represents a democratic tradition of independent socially motivated artists, usually of left-wing or liberal persuasion. Their preoccupation with the conditions of the lower classes was a result of the democratic movements of the 18th and 19th centuries, so social realism in its fullest sense should be seen as an international phenomenon, despite the term’s frequent association with American painting. While the artistic style of social realism varies from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of descriptive or critical realism (e.g. the work in 19th-century Russia of the Wanderers).
Social realism’s origins are traceable to European Realism, including the art of Honoré Daumier, Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet. In 19th-century England the Industrial Revolution aroused a concern in many artists for the urban poor. Throughout the 1870s the work of such British artists as Luke Fildes, Hubert von Herkomer, Frank Holl (e.g. Seat in a Railway Station—Third Class, wood engraving, 1872) and William Small (e.g. Queue in Paris, wood engraving, 1871) were widely reproduced in The Graphic, influencing van Gogh’s early paintings. Similar concerns were addressed in 20th-century Britain by the Artists international association, Mass observation and the Kitchen sink school. In photography social realism also draws on the documentary traditions of the late 19th century, as in the work of Jacob A. Riis and Maksim Dmitriyev; it reached a culmination in the worker–photographer movements in Europe and the work by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn and others for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) project in the USA in 1935–43 (see Photography, §II).
(from www.groveart.com)
Socialist Realism, the art produced in accord with the propagandist purposes of the Soviet Communist dictatorship from 1932. It was proclaimed the officially approved artistic idiom in 1934 at the First All-Union Congress, but no clear stylistic guidelines were given. Rather it was defined negatively, in opposition to the ‘formalism’ and ‘intuitivism’ of contemporary movements. These influences were defined as foreign and alien to Marxist theory, particularly during the patriotic aftermath of the Second World War. Typical subjects included large-scale factories, the new collectivist farms, and heroic representations of Stalin as found in The Morning of our Motherland by Fyodor Shurpin (1948; Moscow, Tretyakov Gal.). Such paintings were often on a monumental scale, with easily identifiable figures painted in a superficially naturalistic mode. Idealized depiction was intended to convey to the proletariat the idea that the Soviet dictatorship had succeeded in extinguishing all societal evils. This form of cultural control diminished in Russia after Stalin's death in 1953 but resemblances were later to be found under similar regimes in South-East Asia. (From www.groveart.com, [from OCWA])
and from Encylopedia Brittanica:
Socialist Realism follows the great tradition of 19th-century Russian realism in that it purports to be a faithful and objective mirror of life. It differs from earlier realism, however, in several important respects. The realism of Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov inevitably conveyed a critical picture of the society it portrayed (hence the term critical realism). The primary theme of Socialist Realism is the building of socialism and a classless society. In portraying this struggle, the writer could admit imperfections but was expected to take a positive and optimistic view of socialist society and to keep in mind its larger historical relevance.
A requisite of Socialist Realism is the positive hero who perseveres against all odds or handicaps. Socialist Realism thus looks back to Romanticism in that it encourages a certain heightening and idealizing of heroes and events to mold the consciousness of the masses. Hundreds of positive heroes—usually engineers, inventors, or scientists—created to this specification were strikingly alike in their lack of lifelike credibility. Rarely, when the writer's deeply felt experiences coincided with the official doctrine, the works were successful, as with the Soviet classic Kak zakalyalas stal (1932–34; How the Steel Was Tempered), written by Nikolay Ostrovsky, an invalid who died at 32. His hero, Pavel Korchagin, wounded in the October Revolution, overcomes his health handicap to become a writer who inspires the workers of the Reconstruction. The young novelist's passionate sincerity and autobiographical involvement lends a poignant conviction to Pavel Korchagin that is lacking in most heroes of Socialist Realism.
& Social realism
Term used to refer to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and film makers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions. In general it should not be confused with Socialist realism, the official art form of the USSR, which was institutionalized by Joseph Stalin in 1934, and later by allied Communist parties worldwide. Social realism, in contrast, represents a democratic tradition of independent socially motivated artists, usually of left-wing or liberal persuasion. Their preoccupation with the conditions of the lower classes was a result of the democratic movements of the 18th and 19th centuries, so social realism in its fullest sense should be seen as an international phenomenon, despite the term’s frequent association with American painting. While the artistic style of social realism varies from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of descriptive or critical realism (e.g. the work in 19th-century Russia of the Wanderers).
Social realism’s origins are traceable to European Realism, including the art of Honoré Daumier, Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet. In 19th-century England the Industrial Revolution aroused a concern in many artists for the urban poor. Throughout the 1870s the work of such British artists as Luke Fildes, Hubert von Herkomer, Frank Holl (e.g. Seat in a Railway Station—Third Class, wood engraving, 1872) and William Small (e.g. Queue in Paris, wood engraving, 1871) were widely reproduced in The Graphic, influencing van Gogh’s early paintings. Similar concerns were addressed in 20th-century Britain by the Artists international association, Mass observation and the Kitchen sink school. In photography social realism also draws on the documentary traditions of the late 19th century, as in the work of Jacob A. Riis and Maksim Dmitriyev; it reached a culmination in the worker–photographer movements in Europe and the work by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn and others for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) project in the USA in 1935–43 (see Photography, §II).
(from www.groveart.com)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sample (Soviet) Citations
Image One: "Workers use old-fashioned brooms to gather grain into a large pile for cleaning." Kazhakstan, circa 1950. Photograph."Workers use old-fashioned brooms to gather grain into a large pile for cleaning." Marxist Internet Archive. "History Archive." Ed. Brian Basgen. 2001. 20 February 2008. <http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/art/photography/farming/index.htm>.
[headnote (200 words) goes here].
Image Two: Vladimir Malagis. Steel Workers. 1950. Oil on Canvas. 162 cm x 200 cm.Malagis, Vladimir. Steel Workers. The Marxist Internet Archive. "Painting with the Hand and Eye of Marxism" Ed. Brian Bagsen. 2007. 20 February 2008. <http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/visual_arts/painting/index.htm>.
This painting reveals that socialist realism, the official aesthetic of the communist part, is surprisingly not like a photograph. Socialist Realism was founded in part by Maxim Gorky, who began his work as an abstract expressionist (Yedlin 26). In this image, the most prominant feature is the smoke from the steel factory. The workers, immersed and enveloped in this smoke are also somewhat obscured by it. Yet this image, a prototype of socialist realism, offers some insight into what constituted this seemingly straightforward (and yet far too strict) aesthetic sensibility. Since the workers can hardly be seen as individual figures, emphasis is immediately placed upon the imposing environment of the workplace. One of the central efforts of the Soviet regime during the late 40's and early 50's was to deal with the growing disillusionment of the ideal worker and the failure of many communist ideals. Socialist Realism remained as one of the few channels for promoting such values. Without idealizing labor, Malagis manages nonetheless to depict the human strength necessary to overcome such conditions. This combination of the banal and "beautiful" is perhaps one of socialist realism's defining features--the creation of "poetical and at the same time mundane" art ("Soviet Painting" 1).
(end of sample caption)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT ESSAY:
- single space captions (so that they can fit on one page)
- include alphabetized works cited page at end (for all works used in all 5 images, not separate works cited pages)
- on the introductory page, please include the references to the HCC reader pages. the easiest format for this would be to make a "List of Images," something like the list of illustrations at the beginning of a book, or a table of contexts. It might look like this (this is a sample):
List of Images
Hannah Hoch. "Untitled." Insert above "Beyond the Bauhaus, painters..." HCC Reader, page 41.
Bertolt Brecht. Kuhle Wampe (film still). Insert after "probed for disturbing truths behind the surface appearances of reality." HCC Reader, page 41.
"Kristallnacht." (photograph). Insert above the paragraph which mentions the "Jewish Problem" and "Night of Broken Glass," HCC Reader, page 87.
....and so on...
Friday, February 15, 2008
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
cover from film by Peter Weigl, 1992
Please respond in comments to the film or the libretto in the HCC Reader, and you can also consider the Pravda article. Here are some questions to think about:
- Professor Moeller's question is why would Shostakovich think that Lady Macbeth is socialist realism?
- He seems to find that Kusej's film stages "orgasm and murder" as the film's theme, but suggests that he [professor Moeller] would make other choices. How would a different staging communicate a different message?
- PM writes: "Shostakovich intended for Katerina to be a sympathetic character. Do you think she came across as sympathetic in the production video you saw? How would you alter the staging to make her sympathetic?"
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