Art and socialism
nanoor
Class-2.pdf
1. Impressionism and the Middle & Lower Classes
Edouard Manet Luncheon on the Grass 1863
Unlike the old Realists paintings, here was a wholly new subject matter: leisure time! Thanks to the
Industrial Revolution and machines, and burgeoning labor unions, people didn’t have to work 7 days a
week, and had some time to enjoy themselves. The concept of a weekend became common during this
period.
Georges Seurat, Bathers at Asnières, 1884
Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882
Degas, Women Ironing, 1884
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec In the Salon at the Rue des Moulins, 1894
Pablo Picasso, Old Guitarist, 1903 Pablo Picasso, The Tragedy, 1903 Picasso, Blind Beggar With a Boy, 1903
Paul Signac. In the Time of Harmony: The Golden Age Has Not Passed, It Is Still to Come , 1896
Question 1 – What does French Realist Honoré Daumier do in this picture in order to earn our
sympathies for the peasants. Does it work and is it effective? Address not only the narrative but also
compositional and formal decisions made by the artist to further his cause of Socialist (Leftist) politics.
El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919 Alexander Rodchenko, Books (Please)! In All Branches of Knowledge, 1924
Question 1 - Russian Constructivism is a Russian Revolution-era style (1917), developed by artists, architects and
designers. It features bold and blunt abstraction (in red, white and black only) but with an agenda; it is pro-
revolution. That is, these artists believed abstraction to be the best, freshest, most impactful style to glorify ideal
Communism in the eyes of the masses. (Continued)
Subsequent Communist governments also recognized the power of art to shape public
opinion. However, for them, the correct style was Russian Socialist Realism, as seen above.
It was the officially sanctioned style, from the mid-1920s to the 1990! (Continued)
Similar Communist politics, but two very different styles. Which style do YOU think
would be more effective as propaganda for the masses: abstraction or realism, and why?
Question 3 – Regarding last module’s artist Jean-Michel Basquait…
Basquait came from a lower socioeconomic background and, as a young graffiti artist,
ended up sleeping on the streets of New York. Just a few years later, he became the toast
of the town in New York’s very privileged, upper-class art world, but died of a heroin
overdose at 27. Do you think both his success and his demise are a factor of class? Why or
why not? Explain.
