Definition of realism

Realism art work can most probably be described as an artistic endeavour to imitate nature with the use of a paintbrush. Such is the aspirations to those who belonged to this movement and believed that classicism, romanticism and subjectivism portrayed fallacies of nature in more than one way.

Artists of the realism period focussed on the study of science and the optical effects of light within our everyday world and as such rejected the use of the imagination as a direct subject for their art. It was their belief that science held the key to all of the problems that we face in our day-to-day lives. As a result, a tendency flourished among realists to produce paintings that reflected the everyday mental experiences of contemporary life. This included abstract concepts such as cultures, problems and customs which tended to focus specifically on the immediate surrounds of the artist and thusly include objects and people traditionally not considered of any artistic merit. Naturally, this pointed the focus away from the pristine idyll of imagination and perception that had its basis in academic art and focussed on those individuals which were heretofore ignored such as the everyday man in his usual environment.

It is because of those principles that realism extended well into the socio-political environment and formed branches such as social realism and, to a further extreme, socialist realism. The former grew alongside the newly formed divisions in society following the industrial revolution where the contrast between rich and poor seemed more stark than ever. These artists waged a metaphorical war against forms of art that elicited any emotions or depicted any beauty as an act of sympathy with the average man and especially the poor.

In Russia socialist realism gained momentum as a means to emphasize the left-wing attributes of everyday life, glorifying the characteristics of loyal communist workers. This type of realism was subsequently used in political propaganda to create a sense of union and brotherhood and, ultimately, patriotism among the working-class population. Social realism continued to flourish in Russia and at one time resulted in all other art groups being abolished which continued until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Interestingly enough realism also gave rise to one of the first avant-garde movements in England. The doctrine promulgated by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood suggested that nature is to be represented by realist works of art and turned on the conventional academic disciplines that involved elements of neoclassicism, romanticism and imagination. The paradox lies therein that a fair portion of modern avant-garde art is based on personal statement, be it political or social, and relies on the viewer to make the implied observation.