Working Paper No. 100, Social Realism and Socialist Realism

This inquiry sees to establish that as a genre, “social realism” reflected values of the American system of market capitalism out of which this art style emerged. During the same timeframe, what has been categorized as “socialist realism” reflected values of the Soviet system out of which this art style also arose. The “Great Depression” that dogged the American economy and society through the 1930s, as well as the “Iron Fist” rule characteristic of Joseph Stalin’s heavy industrialization drive for Soviet Russia, appears to have promoted and shaped these two distinct but similar art styles under consideration, as responses to the respective national challenges. With its “New Deal,” Franklin Roosevelt’s administration advanced policies that sought to render art as integral to economic relief through providing employment and offering paid work for selected artists, with their artwork intended to foster national strength for the artists as well as the viewing citizenry. Meanwhile under Stalin’s leadership, the Soviet Union relied upon “socialist realism” as a medium and genre, seeking to convince and extol to the Soviet citizenry⎯and the world at large⎯the loftier ideals of their order. The comparable approaches of “social realism” and “socialist realism” serve as enduring legacies, depicting how art might get intertwined with national politics and used for the extolling of systemic values.