Can we accept David Shapiro’s assessment that “Social Realism was the dominant art in the America of the Thirties”?
David Shapiro observed that Social Realism was the dominant art in the America of the Thirties. Social Realism is a trend in American art that owes its origin to the 1930s and entails paintings that treat social protest themes in a quasi-expressionist or naturalistic manner. Some art historians have used the term to describe general renderings of American life, falling under the categories American Scene painting and Regionalism.
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The Ashcan school painters are of much significance in the origins of social realism; in the early 20th century, the painters portrayed the commonplace and unglamorous realities of city life. Some of the prominent members of this group, who painted scenes from routine life, were George Luks, Robert Henri, John Sloan, and George Bellows
The stimulation of great effort towards sociopolitical commentary in American painting was subject to the beginning of the programs of the New Deal and the advent of the Great Depression. The federal government expanded job patronage and spread the effort into the arts; the initiative enjoyed the great support of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Treasury Department 1 . Ideally, the commissioning of several artists in the 1930s had the objective of decorating public buildings with murals related to issues of America.
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1. Tagg, John. Realism and rhetoric: the photographic files of the RA and FSA , (2018).
In the course of the 1930’s several artists in America succumbed to the influence of overtly propagandistic and politically conscious works of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco, who were all Mexican muralists.
Arguably, there are several illustrating events as to why the world should buy David Shapiro’s observation that Social Realism was America’s dominant art in the 1930’s. Basically, the 1920s and 1930s witnessed the primary flourishing point of artistic explorations and the Social Realist political movement. This period was characteristic of heightened racial conflict, the rise of fascist regimes internationally, global economic depression, politically disenfranchised, labor unionists, lower and working classes, alongside the great optimism, following the revolutions of Russia and Mexico. American artists showed dissatisfaction in the French avant-garde and their isolation from the society, hence the need to look for social significance and a new vocabulary. Later, these artists would find their essence in the perception that art was a weapon capable of fighting worker exploitation by the capitalist and halt international fascism.
Social Realists presented themselves as workers and laborers in the same way with individuals who toiled in the factories and fields. In most cases, the artists wore overalls with the purposing of symbolizing unity with workers; ideally, held the belief that they were important members of the entire society, not like the elites lived on the margins and labored for the upper crust. Whilst the presence of different subjects and styles within Social Realism, the artists exhibited great unity in their attack on the social power structure and the status quo. In spite of the disparity in style, the American artists were real representatives of realists who emphasized on the human condition and human figure 2 .
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2 Tagg, John (2018).
The foundation of such legacies as Francisco Goya, Honore Daumier, and Gustave Courbet, and in their radical social and politically charged critiques, lies within Social Realism.
The 1920s saw American artists find greater essence within society. Ideally, the presence of Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco (who were Mexican muralists) in the city of New York, alongside the increased teachings of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx significantly inspired the emerging artists. Following the impact of the Great Depression, WPA of President Franklin Roosevelt offered several struggling artists a sense of community, patronage, and the mandate to do realistic paintings 3 . Considering this historical context, a diverse group of artists came together and published magazines, convened artists' congresses, organized unions, advocated for the essence of their revolutionary work, and radical anti-capitalistic change for America; this group of artists came to be known as the Social Realists.
In further attempts to warrant the observation of David Shapiro, it is important to mention New Masses and the John Reed Club (1931). Before the 1930s, many artists in America who were allied to leftist politics began New Masses, which was basically a radical cultural publication closely working with Communist Russia. Almost at the same time, the revolutionary artists launched the John Reed Club. Notably, the name of this club had the purpose of paying tribute to John Reed (an American journalist of 1887-1920), who authored the‘Ten Days That Shook the World’. Within a short time, there were 60 Reed clubs in the United States with a common goal of promoting the establishment of a proletarian society via a series of cultural events.
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3. Tagg, John (2018).
The club’s prominent members included Raphael Soyer, Max Weber, William Gropper, Hugo Gellert, and Moses Soyer. The involved artists later said that the development of a progressive world was significantly as a result of the John Reed Club. The New York-based Reed Club had numerous teachers who were inclusive of the theorist Lewis Mumford, the Mexican muralist art historian, Meyer Schapiro, Louis Lozowick, and artist Ben Shahn, who was the group’s chief theorist. The Club did not have the practice of dictating a certain artistic style, but required the artists to support the dispossessed and the poor, besides fighting for racial justice, and opposing fascism.
The relationship between the Museum of Modern Art and Social Realism is a major factor illustrating David Shapiro’s argument. Ideally, several art galleries and museums were opened in America in the early 1830s; the facilities played an essential role in exhibiting the Social Realism art, for example, the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York's Museum of Modern Art. The year 1930 saw the artist Diego Rivera stage a one-man show at MoMA primarily made up of the artist painting portable murals that were on site. In 1932, MoMA made the presentation of a controversial exhibition which called upon such artists as the Social Realists to develop mural studies for potential projects. This initiative was, however, met with significant criticism from William Gropper, Ben Shahn, and Hugo Gellert.
The formation of the Popular Font also asserts to the words of David Shapiro that Social Realism was the dominant art in the America of the Thirties. In 1935, the Russian Communist Party announced the creation of the political period by the name the Popular Front, which aimed at the creation of a united political front capable of eradicating fascism. Notably, upon the 1933 election of Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany, the world perceived fascism as a greater enemy than capitalism. The Communist Party was extensively using the slogan "Communism is Twentieth-Century Americanism" to find means of unifying liberal and left Americans. Liberal artists found the Popular Front friendlier as they struggled for social equality, at the expense of the radical change of America into a socialist state. In the real sense, the formation of the Popular Font was a historical event in the world of art driven by Russia; ideally, this event affected artists in America as it created space for the progressives to join the cause. Several other artists also supported the anti-fascism theme through their work of art and, at the same time, lessened the hard-line focus on worker-based imagery and art.
Further to assert to the words of David Shapiro, it is necessary to review the Artists' Union and Art Front. It is worth noting that labor organizing and labor unions were of great concern in the 1930s 4 . The period saw Social Realists, who supported the workers establish the Artists’ Union to function as a labor union. Notably, this union was a great ally of the Congress of Industrial Organizations which was the most dominant labor union in America, at the time. Several members of the Artists’ Union led by Stuart Davis, Bernarda Bryson, and Ben Shahn fought for permanent federal art programs and improved wages for artists within the New Deal. This group of artists also played a major role in the struggle against war, racism, and fascism, and war. Ideally, the union used the Art Front as its radical magazine which was characteristic of essays, photographs, complete with articles, and illustrations.
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4. Gilbert, James. A History of Literary Radicalism in America. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1968.
As illustrated by the various events organized by some of the prominent artists of the time, Social Realism dominated the state of art in America in the 1930s. The dominance of the Social Realists in the 1930s owes a lot to the strategy that saw members of the group assume the positions of laborers and workers. Upon realizing that they had been isolated from the society, the Social Realists were determined to join workers and laborers of America who had been going through equally bad conditions in the factories and fields. As the struggle began, the cover image for the New Masses emerged to be the most important art in 1933. During this time, William Gropper, who was a follower of communism and Marxism, drew considerable illustrations for various radical publications, for instance: the Communist Party’s Daily Worker and the New Masses. Gropper and his followers developed easily distributable graphics and prints for radical magazines, with the objective of reaching the greatest number of workers. Gropper took part the revolutionary visual rhetoric of the monumental, triumphant laborer who physically and ideologically dominated the capitalists and puny clerics in the lower left corner.
Ideally, the 1930s struggle staged in America by Social Realists founded some early artwork which has progressed to the models seen in the country this day. Amid an immense deal of fascism and bad terms for workers, the early artists had to find a way of salvaging themselves. Consequently, they formed the group Social Realism which provoked the formation of several unions to fight for the improvement of terms for artists and workers in America 5 .
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5. Gilbert, James
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Why was the search for a specifically American cultural identity the focus of so much concern in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and how did conceptions of national culture and national identity change across these decades?
The 1930s, 40s and 50s became the central period of focus in the search for a specific cultural identity for America. History has seen man struggle to create a sense of belonging, which is an identity to regard his own. Ideally, this innate present in all cultures, time, places with several people having found this identity in America. Indeed, America can be termed as the land of opportunity and dreams, since its earliest time; the country has also been seen to be a source of hope for those who have been rejected in time. A review of the country’s history reveals that the earliest settlers found an ideal environment for religious freedom in America, while others were after a new life. In the course of colonial America, a series of movements sprung up with a common goal of fighting for different versions of liberty.
The end of American Revolution paved the way for Cultural Revolution as citizens of the country sought a specific identity. This struggle is said to have given birth to the United States hence an immense deal of pride in the country. People from different cultural backgrounds had found common ground and cause for freedom; indeed, different groups would fight and risk their lives in order to win their national freedom. It is worth noting that, before the Revolution, America could still be considered to part of Britain. Indeed, the citizens of America faced significant betrayal, exploitation, alongside other forms of mistreatment which pushed Americans to their limits of cooperation and tolerance. Americans wanted their own identity through which they could be recognized as Americans and not British. This inspiration resulted in a resilience that was not resistible. Ideally, it was not easy to bring people together to fight for their identity at a time when America experienced great social stratification and lack of mass media technology.
The cultural identity of America underwent drastic changes from the Progressive Era, through the Roaring Twenties, and into the Great Depression. The Progressive Era was characteristic of a cultural reform which besides establishing a strong central government also conveyed a great sense of cultural identity among the people of America. Before the 1930s, American middle-class activists inspired the use Christian ethics as a means of fixing social problems with such movements as the YMCA.
Also, several middle-class activists were looking for scientific methods to morals in the American Society. The “Square Deal” of President Theodore Roosevelt encouraged the control of corporate power, conservation of natural resources, and protection of consumers. The obvious consequence of this regulation was the creation of an extremely severe air concerning the meaning of an American. Americans identified with each other, and this became a means of ending social stratification; indeed, this was a time when an immense deal of divisions hit the American society on such grounds as race, culture and socio-economic status. The only time when interactions between people at the top and those at the bottom took place was in the course of pity for their situation. America was characteristic of a state in which the upper classes felt significant responsibility for the lower classes to take care of them.
The fight for cultural identity in America is centered on there decades as proven by a series of events that took place after the Great Depression. Notably, the 1930s deepened the reality of the American dream, in which the country was geared to have global recognition as America. Ideally, Americans had to develop great character and resilience because of the challenge and hardship they were subjected to by the Great Depression. Indeed, the 1930s presented the people of America with the opportunity to join hands, experience a sense of identity, and feel like members of a community.
American artists of the 1930s became the beneficiaries of the increasing network sophistication of galleries and museums, which harbored significant exhibitions of art. The year 1939 saw the opening of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, whose name was changed to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The museum became home to several important collections that included the arts of Wassily Kandinsky's; these arts played a significant role in creating a sense of cultural identity among Americans, as they entered the 1940s.
Expressionism is a major concept that asserts to the claim that the struggle for cultural identity in America primarily took place in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. By the late 1940s, several factors led to the growth of a new movement in the midst of disparate and varied work of artists. The Expressionism Movement significantly owes its origin to Clyfford Still laid its foundation immediately after the World War II, using his change from representational to abstract works. The efforts of the 1940s continued with Jackson Pollock upon the development of his signature drip technique. In 1948, Willem de Kooning staged an extremely influential art work at Charles Egan Gallery hence the introduction of various Women paintings, to eliminate composition, relationships, light, and arrangement from his female portraits.
Basically, America went through a sequential cultural transformation as the people of USA transformed from being referred to as part of British to their recognition as American. The major phases of the transformation included the First New Deal which entailed public investment; the Second New Deal characterized by mass work relief; cutbacks and reorganization; and the war effort. Ideally, the first phase entailed collectivization of agriculture and industrialization, polarization of class politics, rhetoric of class warfare, and the leftwards move that opposed the old Bolshevik right.
Cultural transformation America involved the individual and group effort as the citizens of America displayed great commitment towards the creation of a sense of identity. Initially, Americans were recognized with the British culture implying that they never found pride in what was meant to be an American. The struggle was concentrated in the decades between 1930 and 1950 considering that this period saw the emergence of various American art works that increased people’s pride in the culture of America. The period was also characteristic of the formation of some influential groups were essential in America’s cultural differentiation. One of the principal movements was the Expressionism which basically came into existence after the World War II. The second phase saw the completion of Communism, relaxation of the ideological class fight, and the consolidation of centralized control. As the struggle approached its close, the 1936 Soviet Constitution’s institutions also came to an end.
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6. Tagg, John. Cultural politics and the left cultural movement – I: proletarianism and the Soviet model , 2018.
7. Tagg, John. The New Deal and the economic, political and cultural crises of the 1930s , 2018.
Bibliography
Gilbert, James. A History of Literary Radicalism in America. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1968.
Tagg, John. Cultural politics and the left cultural movement – I: proletarianism and the Soviet model , 2018.
Tagg, John. Realism and rhetoric: the photographic files of the RA and FSA , 2018.
Tagg, John. The New Deal and the economic, political and cultural crises of the 1930s , 2018.
