Artist Notes

‘Slumdog Millionaire’: An Object Lesson in Resistance

2011-02-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

Modern mega-slums like Kibera (Nairobi) and Cité-Soleil (Port-au-Prince) have achieved densities comparable to cattle feedlots: crowding more residents per acre into low-rise housing than there were in famous congested tenement districts such as the Lower East Side in the 1900s or in contemporary highrise cores such as central Tokyo and Manhattan. Indeed, Asia’s largest contemporary slum, Dharavi in Mumbai, has a maximum density more than twice than that of the nineteenth-century New York and Bombay streets that Roy Lubove believed were the “most crowded spots on earth” in late-Victorian times.
Mike Davis Planet of Slums [1]

Slumdog Millionaire

The highly successful film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) directed by Danny Boyle is a story of Jamal Malik, a young man from the Juhu slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, thereby arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials. His motive for appearing on the show is to attract the attention of Latika, a girl he has fallen in love with and who he originally met as a child after the Bombay Riots. [2]

It is a film that appears to put money above all and individual striving as the basis of progress. Yet, even in a time when the dominance of neo liberal ideology is so strong that it has become naturalised, there is still room for an oppositional perspective to shine through cracks in the corrugated iron. This will be argued through an examination of the character Jamal Malik's behaviour as he faces up to the police, Indian elites and crime lords as the narrative unfolds.

Probably one of the most important and revealing scenes in the film is on the show when he is asked by the host Prem Kumar the penultimate question that could win him 10 million rupees. The question is ‘Which cricketer has scored the most first class centuries in history?’ and Prem Kumar warns him: ‘If you answer wrong, you lose everything (clicks his fingers) just like this.’ But then they have to take a break. During the interval Prem Kumar talks over his shoulder to Jamal from the bathroom:

Prem Kumar: A guy from the slums becomes a millionaire one night. You know who is the only other person who has done that? Me. I know what it feels like. I know what you have been through.

Jamal Malik: I am not going to become a millionaire. I don’t know the answer.

Prem Kumar: You said that before, yeah?

Jamal Malik: No, really this time I don’t.

Prem Kumar: Come on, you can’t take the money and run now. You are on the edge of history, kid. Maybe it is written my friend. I don’t know - I’ve got a gut feeling you are going to win this. Trust me, Jamal. You are going to win. [3]

He leaves and when Jamal goes to the bathroom he see the letter B written in the steam on the mirror.

They return to the show.

On the show [4]

Jamal chooses to use his life line and two wrong answers are taken away leaving B and D. Jamal stares at Prem and then chooses D. Prem has a slightly shocked look on his face and badgers him to choose B. But Jamal refuses to budge:

Prem Kumar: B: Ricky Ponting or D: Jack Hobbs?

Jamal Malik: D.

Prem Kumar: Not B? The Ricky Ponting, the Australian great cricketer?

Jamal Malik: D. Jack Hobbs.

Prem Kumar: You know?

Jamal Malik: (Shakes his head)

Prem Kumar: So it could be B: Ricky Ponting?

Jamal Malik: Or it could be D: Jack Hobbs! The final answer D. [5]

The correct answer turns out to be D. In the clapping and uproar Prem Kumar smiles and does a little dance calling (Do the dance! Come on!) and beckoning Jamal to him who refuses and stays in his chair. Jamal stares at him and when asked if he is ready for the final question he looks uncomfortable but then responds sarcastically, ‘But maybe it is written, no?’ Jamal's slum upbringing has taught him never to trust those in power.

The show ends before they have time to do the final question. As Jamal leaves Prem escorts him to the back door where he is grabbed by the police and taken off in a police van. One of the studio managers comes over to Prem when he hears the commotion:

Manager: What's going on?

Prem Kumar: He's a cheat.

Manager: How do you know he's cheating?

Prem Kumar: (Speaks Hindi). I fed him the wrong answer, and he never should call it right.

Manager: You gave him an answer?

Prem Kumar: Not exactly. Well that doesn't matter. That's my show! [6]

In the police station [7]

Prem’s use of charm one minute and aggression the next shows us that his route to the top has not been particularly virtuous. He has achieved wealth and fame and now feels securely part of the class that he had aspired to become a member of. This has allowed him to take on the superior attitudes towards his former slum dweller compatriots that are the mark of a confident class. Prem plays up to the chic audience from the opening lines of the show:

Prem Kumar: [starting lines] So Jamal, tell me something about yourself.

Jamal Malik: I work in a call centre in Juhu.

Prem Kumar: Phone basher! And what type of call centre would that be?

Jamal Malik: XL5 mobile phones.

Prem Kumar: Ohh... so you're the one who calls me up every single day of my life with special offers?

Jamal Malik: Actually I'm an assistant.

Prem Kumar: An assistant phone basher? And what does an assistant phone basher do exactly?

Jamal Malik: I get tea for people and...

Prem Kumar: Chaiwalah! Well ladies and gentlemen, Jamal Malik, garma garam chai dene walah from Mumbai, lets play Who Wants To Be A Millionaire! [8]

Prem has learned the language of the well-to-do who look down on the socially aspirant that managed to get trendy jobs (‘phone bashers’) with a foreign multinational but then seizes with delight on the opportunity to use the word ‘chaiwalah’ (teaboy) which he is all too familiar with from his own lowly past.

This kind of mocking treatment only gets worse in the police station when he is tortured to force him to ‘reveal’ how he is doing so well answering the questions in the show.

So, were you wired up?

A little electricity will loosen his tongue, give him.

Yes sir.

So, were you wired up?

Mobile phone or a pager?

Or coughing accomplice in the audience? [9]

The bias of the police against the poor is evident in their lack of belief in the possibility that he might be telling the truth.

The fact that, in the film, Jamal can be held overnight in a police station while at the same time being the subject of intense media attention says a lot about the power of the police and the censorship of the media. It implies that any kind of opposition to the state can be effectively dealt with by the ‘security forces’ without any fear of public knowledge of what is happening to those arrested.

Survival strategies

So what are the possibilities of opposition for those ignored or exploited by the system? This not a film about political struggle [unlike The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) (The Irish War of Independence), Pan's Labyrinth (2006) (The Spanish Civil War), Che: Part One (2008) (The Cuban Revolution), or The Army of Crime (The French Resistance) (2009) to name some examples].

It is a film about personal struggle. What are the survival strategies for the poor?

In Prem’s case it has been a combination of charm and deceit. Jamal refuses to use the same strategies. Jamal knows that the pursuit of money for its own sake is not the path to happiness.

He resists the symbols of authority and oppression: the police (he refuses to give in to the police to end the torture), the wealthy developers (he gives them no respect), the wealthy who many would like to emulate (he disbelieves Prem’s ‘clue’), tourists (seen as fair game), the use of traditional lore (‘it is written’), child kidnappers (rescues Latika with his brother). He sails past the Scylla of rival crime lords and the Charybdis of the biased state to achieve his goals. This is the most important lesson of the film despite the criticisms by many critics of the neo-liberal ideology contained within the film. One such example:

At the end of the film, Jamal is permanently absolved of his disease-like impoverishment. He accomplishes this by winning millions of dollars as a successful contestant in (what should theoretically be) a chance-based game show. Amazingly, Jamal is able to correctly answer each question by employing his accumulated life experiences and, in a sense, locating the answers ‘within himself.’ The fact that Jamal is pre-configured for success as a contestant on “who wants to be a millionaire” speaks volumes about the sort of subversive ideology embedded in what otherwise seems like a fairly ‘inspiring’ narrative. [10]

While it is true that Jamal locates the answers ‘within himself’ many of the answers derive from personal tragedies in his young life. These experiences taught him not to trust anyone in a position of authority. Jamal wants to go on the show to find an old friend he is in love with while most of the ‘phone bashers’ in the office are desperately trying to get on the show to escape their own lives as technological coolies.

Jamal does not revel in his winnings. In fact, each correct answer only brings back bad memories of terror (when the slum is attacked), extreme sorrow (when his mother is killed), indignities (when he jumps into the open lavatory), horror (when he witnesses another child being blinded to increase begging income for his minders), betrayal (when his brother sleeps with the girl he loves), frustration (when he finds Latika working as a servant), torture (by the police) etc. Even on the show he is betrayed again by the host who tries to trick him out of winning (not to mention calling him a cheat and handing him over to the police to be tortured).

Getting autograph (‘Poo’ is actually a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter) [11]

Despite all the criticism of neo-liberal ideology it cannot be ignored that Jamal has learned the most important lesson about middle class hypocrisy – that for the wealthy to remain wealthy the poor must be kept poor. It is no secret that slums provide the middle classes with an enormous pool of very cheap labour for their financial investments with very few costs to the state. Here is how one business writer put it in an article about the slum Dharavi:

Dharavi enjoys relatively reliable power and water supply and an unending stream of cheap labour from rural areas under economic duress. Add to this the reluctance of government officials to intervene into the slum physically or otherwise and the central location within Mumbai’s transport hub, and one begins to understand the economic miracle of Dharavi. And miracle it is: one estimate places the annual value of goods produced in Dharavi at USD 500 million. Commercial and manufacturing enterprises provide employment for a large share of Dharavi’s population as well as for some living outside Dharavi. [12]

This fact is a constant source of embarrassment for some members of the middle classes who would prefer to see the attention shifted away to other more western conceptions of the relationship between ‘employees’ and ‘entrepreneurs’. For example, Shilpa Shetty, "a Bollywood actor who became a star in Britain after winning Celebrity Big Brother, told newspapers that she felt 'that internationally recognised films focus more on our slums and poverty'." [13]

Of course, there are individuals who focus on slums and poverty in the form of slum tourism. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that to reveal is to change. Slum tourism reveals the positive (community spirit) and negative (dire poverty) aspects of life in the slum to well-off tourists who react in different ways to slum living conditions. However, the inhabitants of the slum also have a viewpoint which is rarely heard. In an article in The New York Times, Kennedy Odede, a resident of Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa, writes:

Slum tourism has its advocates, who say it promotes social awareness. And it’s good money, which helps the local economy. But it’s not worth it. Slum tourism turns poverty into entertainment, something that can be momentarily experienced and then escaped from. People think they’ve really “seen” something — and then go back to their lives and leave me, my family and my community right where we were before. I was 16 when I first saw a slum tour. I was outside my 100-square-foot house washing dishes, looking at the utensils with longing because I hadn’t eaten in two days. Suddenly a white woman was taking my picture. I felt like a tiger in a cage. Before I could say anything, she had moved on.

Odede is sceptical of the long term benefits of such experience on the tourists:

To be fair, many foreigners come to the slums wanting to understand poverty, and they leave with what they believe is a better grasp of our desperately poor conditions. The expectation, among the visitors and the tour organizers, is that the experience may lead the tourists to action once they get home. But it’s just as likely that a tour will come to nothing. After all, looking at conditions like those in Kibera is overwhelming, and I imagine many visitors think that merely bearing witness to such poverty is enough. Nor do the visitors really interact with us. Aside from the occasional comment, there is no dialogue established, no conversation begun. Slum tourism is a one-way street: They get photos; we lose a piece of our dignity. [14]

However, it is possible that the issue is one of scale. The vast exposure of slum life in a film like Slumdog Millionaire could have far-reaching effects on the social, legal and political life of the Indian state. Chitra Divakaruni, a poet and professor at the University of Houston defended an article she wrote in the Los Angeles Times called ‘The Slumdog Fight’:

On NPR, she responded to Priya Rajsekar, saying that the film is not “poverty porn.” She cited Charles Dickens as an artist who, through his work, changed child labor laws in England, and that Danny Boyle follows in that tradition. [15]

It may be that such exposure can bring changes to labour laws, attitudes etc but in the end it will come down to the people living in slum conditions themselves to bring about change. If we look at the Factory Acts in England we can see that it took ‘radical agitation’ (see, for example, Richard Oastler who urged workers to use strikes and sabotage [16]) to change the labour laws:

Many children (and adults) worked 16 hour days. As early as 1802 and 1819 Factory Acts were passed to regulate the working hours of workhouse children in factories and cotton mills to 12 hours per day. These acts were largely ineffective and after radical agitation, by for example the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a Royal Commission recommended in 1833 that children aged 11–18 should work a maximum of 12 hours per day, children aged 9–11 a maximum of eight hours, and children under the age of nine were no longer permitted to work. [17]

In the end, Jamal finds success not because of his win but mainly by defeating every middle class attempt to exploit him along the way. The final scene shows Jamal, not celebrating by drinking champagne with his new rich friends, but dancing in solidarity with ordinary people in a type of flash mob scene in a train station. To experience a flash mob of people coming together to dance a particular routine and then melt away back into the crowd is to experience a moment of identity with a group of strangers in a highly alienated modern society.

In the train station [18]

Slumdog Millionaire is not a political film (as noted above). Nor is it a film about money (as argued above). Slumdog Millionaire is a spiritual film, which also makes it subversive. That is because genuine change cannot come about by people corrupted by the state or by the love of money. Change can only come about by people who believe in an ideal that has the love of other people as its basis. Once freed from the fear of authority and the desire for material gain, solidarity in the face of oppression is a very real possibility.

Notes

[1] Mike Davis Planet of Slums (Verso, London, 2007) p.92.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumdog_Millionaire
[3] My transcription
[4] http://www.comicbookbin.com/slumdogmillionairereview-001.html
[5] http://www.subzin.com/quotes/Slumdog%20Millionaire/
[6] My transcription
[7] http://www.comicbookbin.com/slumdogmillionairereview-001.html
[8] http://www.subzin.com/quotes/Slumdog%20Millionaire/
[9] http://www.subzin.com/quotes/Slumdog%20Millionaire/
[10] http://maximillianeinstein.com/thehaplesscapitalist/?p=91
[11] http://www.stephandtonyinvestigate.com/?p=1863
[12] http://www.nyenrode.nl/businesstopics/europeindia/Pages/%E2%80%9CJaiHo%E2%80%9DDharavi.aspx
[13] http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/23/india-celebrates-slumdog-millionaire-oscars-victory
[14] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/opinion/10odede.html
[15] http://gaetanamoviesforallevents.blogspot.com/2009_03_23_archive.html
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Oastler
[17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour
[18] http://www.comicbookbin.com/slumdogmillionairereview-001.html

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of drawings and paintings and features cityscapes of Dublin, images based on Irish history and other work with social/political themes (http://gaelart.net/). He is also developing a blog database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world. These paintings can be viewed country by country on his blog at http://gaelart.blogspot.com/.

‘The Army of Crime’: Immigration and Identity

2011-01-31T08:28:00.000-08:00

Because the truth is, today's immigrants, as they have for generation after generation, work the longest hours at the hardest jobs for the lowest pay, jobs that are just about impossible to fill. Luis Gutierrez

All over the world the question of immigration is a vexing one as is it brings into sharp relief questions of nationhood and identity for the people of the countries experiencing immigration.

The Geneva-based intergovernmental body, the International Organization for Migration stated in its 4th World Migration Report that there are more than 200 million migrants around the world today. The report said that in 2005 Europe hosted the largest number of immigrants, with 70.6 million people and North American, with over 45.1 million immigrants, is second, followed by Asia, which hosts nearly 25.3 million. The report also stated that most of today's migrant workers come from Asia, and demographic data suggests that by 2030, China and India will provide 40 percent of the global work force. [1]

According to the United Nations International Migration Report 2006: A Global Assessment:

In 2004, official migrant remittances amounted to US$ 226 billion, US$ 145 billion of which went to developing countries. Remittances sent back to the home country by migrants are a major source of foreign exchange earnings for some countries and are an important addition to the gross domestic product. [2]

Immigration has often been described in terms of push and pull factors. Push factors can be to escape from poverty and the availability of jobs is a pull factor. Other push factors can be to escape oppression, persecution, dictatorship and war.

Immigrants make huge contributions to cultural, economic and political life despite the recent negative associations with terrorism, national security and unemployment. Immigrants bring variety to cultures that have been closed through tradition or narrow nationalism. The presence of immigrants also stirs up questions of national identity in the peoples of their new homeland and this in turn is reflected in culture.

In cinema, the effects of globalisation have become so strong that a developing concept of Transnational cinema has sought a redefinition or even a refutation of the concept of national cinema as production, funding and distribution increasingly supersede national borders. As communities become increasingly fragmented in terms of ethnicity, social class, gender and political belief, the influence and role of immigrants becomes more salient. In cinema, immigrant groups often initially serve as a social or political foil but which is then soon turned on its head as other aspects of immigrant culture come into play.

Immigration and cinema

In recent years three films Gangs of New York (2002), Gran Torino (2008), and The Army of Crime (French: L'Armée du crime) (2009) have looked at the issue of immigration from different perspectives that show the trials, sufferings and ultimately sacrifice of immigrants in their new homeland. In Gangs of New York many of the newly arriving Irish rapidly become canon fodder for the American Civil War or else fight it out with other immigrants for survival. In Gran Torino a conservative widower gradually comes to understand and empathise with the culture of his Hmong neighbours. In The Army of Crime a group of immigrants take up the fight against Nazi occupation in France and pay the ultimate price for their adopted country.

Gangs of New York

My whole family has been having trouble with immigrants ever since we came to this country. Edgar Y. Harburg

Gangs of New York is a 2002 American historical crime film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan. The film begins in 1846 and quickly jumps to the early 1860s. The two principal issues of the era in New York were Irish immigration to the city and the Federal government's execution of the Civil War. The story follows Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) in his roles as crime boss and political kingmaker under the helm of Boss Tweed (Jim Broadbent). The film culminates in a confrontation between Cutting and his mob with the protagonist Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his immigrant allies, which coincides with the New York Draft Riots of 1863. [3]

An extraordinary mise-en-scène shot that almost serves as a mini film within the film tells the story of the fate of many new arrivals into New York in a time of civil war in America. In one long shot the story of many Irish men was told, from their arrival in America to their tragic end in the land that they had hoped would fulfil all their hopes and dreams.

Bill (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Gangs of New York (2002) [4]

The scene starts with Bill and Amsterdam turning their backs as Bill responds, “Not our future” to the Boss Tweed who has just claimed that they were turning their backs on the future i.e. the political and economic potential of the new immigrants. The camera then pans to the left as the new Irish immigrants who have just got off one ship from Ireland are queuing up at the recruiter's harbour table where they are sworn in to the army.

Army Recruiter: That document makes you a citizen, and this one makes you a private in the Union army. Now go fight for your country.

A song is overlaid on the scene sung by a woman with the following lyrics:

Irish Singer: [singing] Well, meself and a hundred more, to America sailed o'er, with our fortunes to be made, so we were thinkin' / When we got to Yankee land, they shoved a gun into our hands / Saying "Paddy, you must go and fight for Lincoln."/ There is nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar, and I wish I was back home in dear old Dublin.

The camera pans following the new recruits as they move on up to one who is changing his Irish cap for a soldier's cap. Others are getting into the uniform in assembly line fashion as another recruiter puts a gun into their hands. They then get into another line fully kitted out moving slowly towards another gangway for the ship that will take them to the war. Two soldiers can be heard conversing:

Irish Immigrant: Where we goin'?

Another Immigrant: I heard Tennessee.

Irish Immigrant: Where's that?

The camera then slowly pans along the new recruits as family members, possibly his wife and daughter, run up to one new soldier. A girl with red hair talks to another worried- looking soldier. As they start up the gangway another soldier asks:

Irish Soldier: Do they feed us now do you think?

[Earlier in the film new recruits were promised three square meals a day if they joined up].

As they move slowly up the gangway the camera cranes up higher and we can see soldiers sitting around on the ship waiting. Just then a coffin comes into view [with the number 61 stuck to it] as it is lifted with ropes by a crane in the direction of the quays. The coffin flies over the heads of the line of recruits and more coffins come into view for the first time. Soon we see two rows of 10 coffins each neatly laid out and being inspected by soldiers. Two workers carry one of the coffins past the line of new recruits [who don’t seem to notice it] and up the quay presumably to a graveyard. At this point there is a cut to a presentation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

This whole mise-en-scène shot lasts one minute and eight seconds.

Quay scene: Life and death. The new recruits line up on the left in Gangs of New York (2002) [5]

Historical and political ironies

Of the many ironies in this scene two stand out. In a slightly earlier scene the politician says:

Boss Tweed: That's the building of our country right there, Mr. Cutting. Americans aborning.

They may be new American citizens but the scene on the docks starts with the idea of birth and ends with death symbolised by the rows of coffins revealing the way many immigrants were seen as cannon fodder for a war they knew nothing about. Their basic desires for acceptance and food led them to a fate they were scarcely aware of.

Continuing the above dialogue, Bill, a Protestant, states his view of the Irish bluntly:

Bill: I don't see no Americans. I see trespassers, Irish harps. Do a job for a nickel what a nigger does for a dime and a white man used to get a quarter for. What have they done? Name one thing they've contributed.

Boss Tweed: Votes.

Bill: Votes, you say? They vote how the archbishop tells them, and who tells the archbishop? Their king in the pointy hat what sits on his throne in Rome.

The second irony here is that Bill sees them in religious terms and feels no solidarity or empathy for their plight as victims of British colonial policy back in Ireland despite the fact that Bill’s own father also suffered at the hands of the British:

Bill: My father gave his life, making this country what it is. Murdered by the British with all of his men on the twenty fifth of July, Anno Domini, 1814. Do you think I'm going to help you befoul his legacy, by giving this country over to them, what's had no hand in the fighting for it? Why, because they come off a boat crawling with lice and begging you for soup?

Another irony here is that the Irish immigrants were queuing up to fight and die for their new home despite not knowing very much about the issues involved and had just come off a boat ‘crawling with lice’ and begging for soup. Their lack of awareness is emphasised by the fact that they don’t seem to notice or question the array of coffins on the quay that they are walking past. They seem blissfully unaware that they have jumped from the frying pan into the fire in their relief and excitement of having finally arrived in America.

Of course, Bill was right when he said that the immigrants were not part of his future as the reign of the gangs in New York was eventually overtaken by a unified state and built up on the backs of the many immigrants who would pour in for many years to come.

Gran Torino

The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people. Noam Chomsky

Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed, produced and starring Clint Eastwood. The story follows a Polish American, Walt Kowalski, a retired Ford automobile assembly line worker and recently widowed Korean War veteran who is alienated from his family and angry at the world. [6]

A Hmong family moves in next door and Walt refuses to have any dealings with them. Then Walt's young Hmong neighbor, Thao, tries to steal Walt's prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino on a dare by his cousin for initiation into a gang. Walt develops a relationship with the boy and his family. Their strong sense of community values and openness towards him has a profound affect on Walt. They insist that Thao makes reparations for his misdeed and at the same time invite Walt into their Hmong family gatherings where he is treated as one of the family. Initially embarrassed by their kindness and food offerings he begins to reflect on the values of his own family. Although he is not an easy person to get on with Walt is disappointed that his sons are far too busy to see him, his grandchildren are selfish and spoilt and, in general, they seem more interested in getting him into a retirement community.

Sue (Ahney Her) and Walt (Clint Eastwood) in Gran Torino (2008) [7]

Gradually Walt’s attitude shifts from resentment towards his poor Asian immigrant neighbours to one of empathy and support for the underdog. The gang beat up Thao for failing to rob the car and Walt steps in threatening to kill the gang if they didn’t leave Thao alone. However, the gang’s response is to attack Thao’s house in a drive-by shooting and rape his sister.

Walt realises that Thao’s family would never be safe with the gang around and devises a plan to get the gang to commit another serious crime. This time there would be plenty of witnesses and they would be put in prison for a long time but Walt sacrifices his own life in the process.

The Hmong Vang Lor family and Walt (Clint Eastwood) in Gran Torino (2008) [8]

While there are many conservative aspects to Gran Torino, the film uses an elderly protagonist and a minority community to great effect showing how racial stereotypes and negative attitudes can be overcome. It also shows how human values can transcend national identity particularly as Walt’s own family were once immigrants from Poland.

The Army of Crime (French: L'Armée du crime)

The most superficial student of Roman history must be struck by the extraordinary degree in which the fortunes of the republic were affected by the presence of foreigners, under different names, on her soil. Henry James Sumner Maine

The Army of Crime (French: L'Armée du crime) is a 2009 French drama-war film directed by Robert Guédiguian and based on a story by Serge Le Péron, one of three credited for the screenplay. It received a wide release in France on September 16, 2009 and opened in the United States in 2010.

The film deals with the events of the Affiche Rouge ("red poster") affair. The title was taken from the caption on a propaganda poster, in which the Nazis sought to present prominent resistance fighters as foreign criminals. The caption read "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime".

Affiche Rouge ("red poster") [9]

In Paris during the German occupation, an ill-assorted group of resistance fighters commits disorganized attacks. Its membership included 22 men: eight Poles, five Italians, three Hungarians, two Armenians, a Spaniard, and three French; and one woman, who was Romanian. Eleven were also Jewish.

The film traces the story of this group, from its shaping to the execution of its members in 1944. Missak Manouchian, an Armenian exile, was ready to help but reluctant to kill; for him, being ready to die but not to kill was an ethical matter. However, circumstances led him to abandon his reluctance and under his leadership, the group structured and planned its guerrilla actions. [10]

Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian ) [centre] in The Army of Crime (2009) [11]

At a gathering for the group, Manouchian’s toast reminds us of his old and new identities:

Today is the anniversary of the Soviet Armenia. I remember my father killed by Turkish soldiers, my mother who died of grief and the brother I loved so much. I’m an orphan like all the other Armenian victims but I’m lucky because you’re all here, because you have become my family. A family of fighters to confront the occupier! Long live France! Long live Armenia! Long live the ILO!

However, the French police follow the group and eventually through torture find and capture the members. The film ends with the group being brought off to their execution by the Nazis.

The Manouchian group in The Army of Crime (2009) [12]

The attempt by the Nazis to portray the Manouchian group as terrorists backfired when ‘Morts pour la France’ (They died for France) was written beneath some of the Affiche Rouge posters. The complexity of national identity is revealed in the ironies of a group of foreign immigrants fighting for the freedom of France from its Nazi occupiers being captured and tortured by French police. The importance of this lesson is not lost on Arsène Tchakarian, who, at ninety-three years of age is the last living member of the Manouchian group (along with Henri Karahian). When asked, in an interview by Gérard Devienne, if the story contained in the film is important today, he replied:

One should know history so that the memory of what happened is not lost. That’s why I have already visited nearly 220 schools and given dozens of lectures, so that people might know the historical truth and can make it their own. An educational film, in the making of which I was involved, concerning the part played by emigrants in the resistance, is ready for release and will be shown in schools and colleges. [13]

Memorial to the Manouchian Group [14]

Role and influence of immigrants

As the world becomes more globalised and boundaries of national identity become more and more confused and diffused the role and influence of immigrants will also become more complex. As the above three films have shown immigrants can play many different roles, both conscious and unconscious, in the future of all our societies.

Notes:

[1] http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Dec02/0,4670,EUWorldMigrationReport,00.html

[2] http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/2006_MigrationRep/exec_sum.pdf

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_of_New_York

[4] http://www.fanpix.net/0646236/012027172/gangs-of-new-york-2002-picture.html

[5] http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/gangs-of-new-york4.html

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Torino

[7] http://betterangelsnow.com/post/135/8/gran-torino.html

[8] http://www.asiapacificforum.org/show-detail.php?show_id=139

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Affiche_rouge.jpg

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Army_of_Crime

[11] http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/movies/20army.html

[12] http://www.culch.ie/2009/10/02/army-of-crime-review/

[13] http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1332

[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiche_Rouge

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of drawings and paintings and features cityscapes of Dublin, images based on Irish history and other work with social/political themes (http://gaelart.net/). He is also developing a blog database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world. These paintings can be viewed country by country on his blog at http://gaelart.blogspot.com/.

"Torture Porn": World Cinema at its Lowest Ebb

2011-01-15T05:30:00.000-08:00

You walk in to a very large darkened room with a high ceiling. There is a large audience watching in anticipation. A story unfolds before your eyes, in vivid colour. It is the story of a good person who was captured and tortured. The torture is shown in 3D and in metaphor. The audience is hushed and contemplative. Despite the horrors of the torture the protagonist of the story eventually escapes and returns to his friends who are overjoyed, if not a bit shocked at his wounds. But his return signals to all in the audience that there is hope in this world despite the daily horrors.

Of course, the possibly of hope is one of the main differences between the Catholic Mass and certain modern films.

While torture is not new in cinema its depiction has become progressively (or should I say regressively?) more realistic and graphic.

A Serbian Film

What were once vices are the fashion of the day.
Seneca

The relatively new genre of torture porn is being highlighted once again by the arrival of A Serbian Film, a film of unspeakable horrors with absolutely no hope. This film has been described as a film about politics as the director defended “his choices by saying that the film represents the molestation of the Serbian people and that you have to feel the violence to understand it”. According to The Guardian:

“the British Board of Film Classification were less convinced and demanded 49 individual cuts that amount to nearly four minutes of screen time. ‘The film-makers have stated that A Serbian Film is intended as an allegory about Serbia itself,’ admitted a BBFC spokeswoman. ‘The board recognises that the images are intended to shock, but the sexual and sexualised violence goes beyond what is acceptable under current BBFC guidelines [for an 18-certificate].’” [1]

The extreme nature of the film has even caused it to be dropped from the Film4 Frightfest film festival, “the UK's premiere fantasy and horror film festival.” [2] (For those with a very strong stomach here is a link to a review of A Serbian Film, but be warned, it doesn’t have two disclaimers for nothing: http://www.moviesonline.ca/2010/12/torture-porn-redefined-dressing-serbian-film/). Calls for censorship have come from reviewers and groups that would normally be quite liberal about such films. The consensus seems to be that the extreme nature of the content of the film undermines any political message.

There have been many films in this genre over the past few years: Saw (2004) [3], Hostel (2005) [4], Wolf Creek (2005) [5] etc. Torture porn has been creeping into mainstream films for some years now with The Life of David Gale (2003) [6], The Passion of Christ (2004) [7] and Casino Royale (2006) [8].

Changing aesthetic

The changing aesthetic of violence can be seen in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) [9] with three kinds of violence occurring throughout the film. There is an opening 30-minute war scene of the D-Day invasion of Normandy which is executed in a gritty realistic manner and a final battle scene of the soldiers holding off a German counter-attack with a more typical Hollywood war movie aesthetic.

However, there is a scene before the final battle of hand to hand warfare in the ruined houses where one soldier sticks a knife in another lying on the floor and talks quietly to him as he slowly pushes the knife in. This is a different aesthetic from the other two scenes as one starts feel like a voyeur watching how a person dies rather than why. The voyeur aspect is a strong element of the torture porn genre where victimisation, pain and suffering are lingered over.

There has been much discussion about the desensitizing effects of such violence in mainstream cinema on society on the one hand and the grip of the nanny state on the other. However, we live in an unfair society and there is no doubt that whether cinema begets violence or not is an important subject necessitating constant debate. The organisation of society itself creates many frustrations and these can be expressed in many kinds of violence: state violence (e.g. riot police), political violence, sexual violence, criminal violence, blood sports, bullying, structural violence etc.

Rather than looking at the affects of watching violence on audiences, I would like to look at the ideological impact of violence in films in the context of power and social control in society in general.

In this sense, it is fruitful to look at the prevalence of violence in films from the perspective of the asymmetrical power relations between the victims and the perpetrators. Instead of questioning whether there should be violence or not, we can examine if the violence is justified or not, who ultimately benefits from the violence and whether the violence used is excessive or not.

For example, in Hostel II wealthy men bid for the opportunity to torture and kill. In one scene in Hostel II:

“[Stuart] takes the sack off Beth's head and explains about Elite Hunting. Stuart tells Beth that the group is a worldwide secret society where wealthy members come to Slovakia to kill people that the organization abducts as a twisted satisfaction for the psychopath members to kill people in various fantasy-like ways for the sole purpose to watch them die and to get the satisfaction of killing a human. All the members are important people of society in every country in the world (politicians, lawyers, doctors, policemen, directors, actors, businessmen, etc).” [10]

Hostel II describes the ultimate ‘service industry’ where the most extreme fantasies can be ‘enjoyed’ if you have enough dough. Thus, in the film it is the elite of society who are seen to enjoy any kind of activity they desire to be indulged in. They can 'buy' a victim upon whom they can conduct extreme forms of torture and murder. It is unjustified, excessive violence perpetrated on unknowing victims.

In films where it is ordinary people engaging in violence (aside from violent criminality), it tends to be revenge violence or revolutionary violence.

Revenge violence

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Sir Francis Bacon

The problem with revenge violence is that it is anarchic and so can be difficult to stop from spiraling out of control. A lynch mob is an example of violence that is carried out in anger and may result in the group murder of an innocent person.

In cinema, revenge violence can express a collective unconscious of revenge on someone who it was felt had never properly faced justice for their crimes. For example, in Inglourious Basterds (2009) a fantasy of revenge is created through violence which is used against Hitler:

"On her cue, Marcel flicks his cigarette into the pile of nitrate film behind the screen, igniting it. The fire bursts through the screen, causing pandemonium in the auditorium. Just then, Donowitz and Ulmer burst into Hitler's box and gun down Hitler, Goebbels and the other Nazi leaders." [11]

Thus a violent retribution is enacted upon those who caused much suffering and death to millions of Jews but who in reality escaped justice through suicide. In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) [12] we see a different form of revenge violence when the torture and violent rape of a woman leads her to seek revenge through reciprocal violence and then becomes a ‘saviour’ of all women when she tracks down a serial killer of young women and refuses to pull him from his burning car.

Revolutionary violence

It is organized violence on top which creates individual violence at the bottom. It is the accumulated indignation against organized wrong, organized crime, organized injustice, which drives the political offender to act.
Emma Goldman

Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” (2006) [13]

In The Battle of Algiers (1966) frustrations caused by colonial oppression result in political violence by the oppressed, whereby “the torture used by the French is contrasted with the Algerian's use of bombs in soda shops.” [14]

"The Battle of Algiers" (1966) [15]

In other films there is the calculated revolutionary violence that is used to bring about social and political change in films such as The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) (The Irish War of Independence) [16], Pan's Labyrinth (2006) (The Spanish Civil War) [17] and Che: Part One (2008) (The Cuban Revolution) [18]. In these films violence is contextualised, directed at specific targets for specific reasons, and always with a long term goal in mind. Whether these films are anti-colonial, anti-fascist or stories of popular uprising they counteract the negative ideology of individualised suffering and torture without hope.

"Che: Part II" (2008) [19]

New cathedrals

It has often been stated that shopping malls are the new cathedrals of society yet the process of film-making has much more in common with church rituals. In the church the mass goers learn of the Christian narrative through the Stations of the Cross (unfolding picture story of the crucifixion), stained glass windows (vivid colour), the Crucifix hanging behind the altar (3D), Breaking of the Bread and Communion (metaphor), Eucharistic Prayer and Apostles’ Creed (the Good News) ending with the Blessing and Dismissal. [20]

In cinemas we watch multi-million dollar block buster movies that are based around a core of a few well-known actors who are the focus of attention over and above minor actors and extras around them. These films follow quite rigid narrative structures that are usually ideologically conservative. The films are then shown all over the world in cinemas with audiences soaking in an ideology which is legitimised by the fame of the primary ‘A-list’ actors.

In the church, the story of capture and torture is balanced by the idea of hope and redemption. The cinema can do the same. It is possible to reject the torture of despair and question the actors and directors who indulge in such film-making while, at the same time, continually asserting our desire for a cinema of hope, of stories that show heroism and courage in the face of the multi-faceted forms of violence and oppression in modern society.

Notes

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/27/a-serbian-film-frightfest

[2] http://www.frightfest.co.uk/

[3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/synopsis

[4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450278/synopsis

[5] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416315/synopsis

[6] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289992/

[7] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335345/

[8] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381061/

[9] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/

[10] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498353/synopsis

[11] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/synopsis

[12] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/synopsis

[13]http://internetservices.readingeagle.com/blog/moviehouse/2007/06/the_one_movie_you_should_see_t_19.html

[14] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058946/plotsummary

[15] http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2004/battleofalgiers.php

[16] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/synopsis

[17] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457430/synopsis

[18] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892255/

[19] http://www.munster-express.ie/files/2009/05/che-3.jpg

[20] See: http://catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/Mass.htm

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of drawings and paintings and features cityscapes of Dublin, images based on Irish history and other work with social/political themes (http://gaelart.net/). He is also developing a blog database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world. These paintings can be viewed country by country on his blog at http://gaelart.blogspot.com/

Depicting the Worldwide Crisis: The Role of the Artist in Social, Economic and Political Change

2010-12-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

As the global economic crisis deepens, one may ask how the artist can play any role in social, economic and political change?

Visual artists have been commenting on society since William Hogarth, a pictorial satirist and during the early 1700s, used art to comment on the politics and customs of his time.

The same challenge still exists today - how can the visual artist make images that have a profound effect on people and their view of society and so hope to contribute to making a better society for all?

A painting may be just physical pigments of colour applied to a canvas but how the image is constructed in terms of composition, tone, colour and line is a very particular process that contrasts sharply with music and literature.

Unlike music its pictorial symbols are very directly 'read', and unlike literature it must summarise its images and ideas as parts of one composition, telling a whole story whereas in literature the story can be developed over time.

Thus, in visual art the politics of representation is just as important as the representation of politics. How the people, the political and economic system, work, demonstrations, social structures, oppression, poverty etc. are represented depends on the individual artist's use of style and composition to make an image. What stylistic choices does the politically conscious figurative artist have today to create art that comments on society?

If we look to the past, we can see that over the centuries artists have developed different visual strategies to encompass the 'stories' of their subjects. Four different approaches will be examined here: Allegory, Realism, Expressionism, and Mexicanidad.

One could argue that Allegory and Expressionism have been used as distancing devices while Realism and Mexicanidad draw people in to empathise with the subjects of the composition (usually a reflection of themselves or their own history).

Some artists depict a negative view of society, some keep a neutral perspective (out of a fear of the art becoming 'propaganda') and some take a positive view by consciously depicting action and change. There is also an important aspect that, as we shall see, sometimes the artists themselves see the strategies as temporary and that in an ideal world they would make different kinds of art. This reveals itself as a tension between the present and the future, the implicit and the explicit, the necessary and the ideal.

Allegory
Allegory can be described as "a figurative mode of representation conveying meaning other than the literal. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation." [1]

In visual art there is a long history of using symbols to represent ideas, desirable qualities, political and social issues etc. and in some political regimes allegory has been used as one form of comment that was not vulnerable to immediate censorship.

The Irish artist Seán Keating (1889 – 1977) was one socially conscious artist who used allegory in his paintings to explore the turbulent times of the early twentieth century. Keating made many paintings documenting the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. [2] In one of his allegorical paintings, Night's Candles are Burnt Out, Keating depicts the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the river Shannon in a realistic style but incorporating many allegorical elements to comment on past, present and future aspects of Irish society at that time.

Night's Candles are Burnt Out (1927-28) by Seán Keating [3]

Keating himself describes what he was trying to achieve thus:

"The title suggests that the dawn has come, when the dim candlelight of surviving medievalism in Ireland is fading before the rising sun of scientific progress, exemplified by the Shannon electricity works, which form the background to my picture. The stage Ireland and the stage Irishman are typified by the skeletons hanging on the left from one of the steel towers which support the electric transmission lines. Beneath are the types of Irish workmen. In the centre of the foreground are two men. One represents the Capitalist, who carries under his arms plans for industrial development. A gunman confronts him menacingly. The two symbolize the constant antagonism between the business elements and the extremists, which hinders the material progress of the State. The priest reading represents the unchanging church, ever present when spiritual guidance is needed but concerning itself only with a kingdom that is not of this world. In short, my picture depicts the transition of Ireland from a country of ancient stagnation to a state of freedom and progress." [4]

The power of the allegorical style consists in its ability to convey many different aspects of a contemporary issue using multiple elements that would not normally appear in a straightforward realist composition. It allows one to integrate one's philosophical outlook into the composition and give the painting a symbolic significance beyond the sum of its parts. Allegory allowed Keating to put forward his views of society which were prophetic considering the very recent economic and political turbulence in Ireland. He noted that:

"To endeavour to promote social conscience in the name of God and at the same time to permit - under the guise of modernism and advancement - the activities of a naked commercialism (which has fallen into disrepute among the very people who created it) is a process of auto-frustration. Unbridled self interest and reckless exploitation of the moral and physical needs of the human race has brought about the state of things in which collapse is inevitable." [5]

Realism
From the Social Realism of the nineteenth century to the Socialist Realism of the twentieth century, Realism as a movement in art has been a sturdy vehicle for the depiction of socio-political causes the world over.

John French Sloan (1871 – 1951), an American artist and a leading figure of the Ashcan School of realist artists "concerned himself with what we call genre: street scenes, restaurant life, paintings of saloons, ferry boats, roof tops, back yards, and so on through a whole catalogue of commonplace subjects." [6]

Sloan was active in American left wing politics but refused to make overtly political art which he saw as 'propaganda'. He tried to keep some distance between his art and his political ideas which were more implicit than explicit in his paintings.

McSorley's Bar (1912) by John Sloan [7]

Sloan commented on this problem when he stated that:

"I was never interested in putting propaganda into my paintings, so it annoys me when art historians try to interpret my city life pictures as 'socially conscious.' I saw the everyday life of the people, and on the whole I picked out bits of joy in human life for my subject matter." [8]

While highlighting the lives of the poor and the oppressed were implicit in his art, he rejected the implication that this was the only reason why he painted. As if to emphasise the importance of making art as a process in itself he told his students "I have nothing to teach you that will help you to make a living". [9]

Expressionism
Expressionism was "a cultural movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the start of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world in an utterly subjective perspective, radically distorting it for emotional effect, to evoke moods or ideas." [10]

Expressionism is an ideal style for political art in that it allows the artist to pour out his/her anger at an oppressive system/government/political party in a very dramatic way. However, as a style it can also sink into an almost Swiftian misanthropism. A good example of this is the German artist George Grosz (1893 – 1959) whose work was described by Robert Hughes thus:

"In Grosz's Germany, everything and everybody is for sale. All human transactions, except for the class solidarity of the workers, are poisoned. The world is owned by four breeds of pig: the capitalist, the officer, the priest and the hooker, whose other form is the sociable wife." [11]

The Funeral (Dedicated to Oskar Panizza) (1917 – 1918) by George Grosz [12]

Even for Grosz himself, Expressionism had its limits:

"My aim is to be understood by everyone. I reject the 'depth' that people demand nowadays, into which you can never descend without a diving bell crammed with cabbalistic bullshit and intellectual metaphysics. This expressionistic anarchy has got to stop ... A day will come when the artist will no longer be this bohemian, puffed-up anarchist but a healthy man working in clarity within a collectivist society." [13]

Thus, Grosz hoped that one day the need for such extreme art would not be necessary and that the artist would eventually be integrated into an egalitarian society where he/she would become like the artisan/craft worker of earlier times, a worker without the ego of the contemporary artist.

Mexicanidad
Mexicanidad is an art style which mixes Mexican culture and heritage and was exemplified by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957). His art was based on large figures using bold colours and Aztec influences. This style allowed him to incorporate contemporary political struggle with depictions of the Aztec past. He painted many murals in public places which he saw as a democratic art form that all people could have access to regardless of race and social class. [14]

History of Mexico from the Conquest to 1930 (1929 –1931) by Diego Rivera [15]

Rivera's influences ranged from the Italian masters to the political warfare on the streets:

"During my seventeen months in Italy, I completed more than three hundred sketches from the frescoes of the masters and from life. Many of the latter depicted street clashes between socialists and fascists which occurred before my eyes. I often sketched while the bullets whistled around my ears." [16]

Rivera's style is a consciously and overtly political style (which Sloan would have seen as 'propaganda') covering everything from childbirth and education to political demonstrations and revolutionary activity. This style celebrates political activity as a core activity of social life, now and into the future.

Conclusion
The global economic crisis demands a response from artists just as it demands a response from other types of social commentators. The above four visual strategies show starting points that can be used and developed by artists today looking for ways to explore contemporary problems.

Notes:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory
[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_Keating
[3] http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/shannon_hydroelectric_scheme/shannon_hydro_electric_scheme.htm
[4] Seán Keating: In Focus, Eimear O'Connor (Associated Editions, 2009) p. 20/1
[5] Seán Keating: In Focus, Eimear O'Connor (Associated Editions, 2009) p27
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_French_Sloan
[7] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/John_French_Sloan
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_French_Sloan
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_French_Sloan
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism
[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Grosz
[12] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Grosz_Widmung_an_Oskar_Panizza.jpg
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Grosz
[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Rivera
[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Rivera
[16] My Art, My Life:An Autobiography Diego Rivera (Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 1991) p.72

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is a prominent Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of drawings and paintings and features cityscapes of Dublin, images based on Irish history and other work with social/political themes (http://gaelart.net/).

(Social) Realism Themes: Cinema and Theatre

2010-11-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

Croatia

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-realism-croatia.html

United States

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/03/american-social-realism.html

Ireland

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/03/irish-social-realism.html

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism Themes: Agricultural Workers (Part 2)

2010-10-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

(Social) Realism Themes: Agricultural Workers (Part 1)

2010-10-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

The Global Crisis, The Role and Meaning of Art in Society

2010-10-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

The more horrifying the world becomes, the more art becomes abstract.
- Paul Klee

As the current world economic crisis deepens, the role and meaning of art in society changes as more and more people are dragged down by the weight of personal debt, unemployment and poverty. Galleries close and less people can afford to buy art creating a new awareness among artists of the fragility of the art market and the economic system behind it that creates an increasingly alienated and elitist exclusivism.

The beneficial effects of new radical-democratic global solidarity movements coming together to seek alternatives to this crisis in capitalist globalization may be to reinvigorate the long-standing, though weakened, connection between artists and the people (as opposed to the economic elites who have been the artists’ lifeblood in the past but who are now also in crisis).

While artists have depicted ordinary people since the Middle Ages, it was a past crisis that firmly established a mutually respectful relationship between the artist and the people. As Linda Nochlin writes in Realism:

“[I]t was not until the 1848 Revolution which raised the dignity of labour to official status and the grandeur of le peuple to an article of faith, that artists turned to a serious and consistent confrontation of the life of the poor and humble: to the depiction of work and its concrete setting as a major subject for art - as a possible subject even for an artistic masterpiece on a monumental scale.” (1)

The origins of the 1848 revolutions in Europe were both practical and ideological. On the one hand technological change was adding to the woes of economic downturns and crop failures producing unemployment and starvation, while on the other hand, the new ideas of democracy, liberalism, nationalism, and socialism were fueling popular dissent. These new ideas questioned the ideology of the monarchical and aristocratic elites to its very core:

“Liberalism fundamentally meant consent of the governed and the restriction of church and state power, republican government, freedom of the press and the individual. Nationalism believed in uniting people bound by (some mix of) common languages, culture, religion, shared history, and of course immediate geography; […] Socialism in the 1840s was a term without a consensus definition, meaning different things to different people, but was typically used within a context of more power for workers in a system based on worker ownership of the means of production.” (2)

Social Realism

The new ideas also had their influence on artists such as Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet who began to paint subjects that were considered vulgar: peasants and the working conditions of the poor. However, theirs was no simple glorification and romanticisation of a new subject matter but a serious study taken at a respectful distance:

“The Realists’ approach to these heroes of their time [e.g. ‘the worker’ or ‘the peasant’], was, however, completely consistent with their general attitude. If they raised the labourer and the lower classes to the serious and important level formerly reserved for the gods, kings and the mighty, at the same time, in their representations of the great men of their own time, they tended to play down the exceptional and to depict their heroes casually, in an everyday setting, often the in the milieu of, or actually engaged in, their work, as though the sitters themselves were unwilling to bother with the histrionic, posed gestures or conventional postures of grandeur.” (3)

Jean-François Millet The Gleaners (1857)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet

In Jean-François Millet’s The Gleaners, for example, the centuries old right of poor women and children to remove the bits of grain left in the fields following the harvest is depicted as repetitive, backbreaking labour. Their partially occluded faces depict the women more as objects than subjects, while at the same time, their extremely low position in the social order is highlighted by the fact that their only competition for the leftover grain are birds and other animals. In 1857, Millet “submitted the painting The Gleaners to the Salon to an unenthusiastic, even hostile, public”. (4)

(Courbet also met fierce denunciations from critics and the public for his painting A Burial at Ornans, as well as accusations of being in “a deliberate pursuit of ugliness.”(5))

Thus, in this style of art we have a form described as Realist, that is a “a movement in 19th-century (particularly French) art characterized by a rebellion against the traditional historical, mythological, and religious subjects in favour of unidealized scenes of modern life” (6) or Social Realism, “an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles” (7) taking on a whole art history that mainly consisted of the representation of elites.

Socialist Realism

As nationalist struggles of the nineteenth century changed into socialist struggles during the twentieth century, the style and form of the art changed too as ordinary people were now depicted as subjects with dignity and power. This style became known as Socialist Realism. It was pronounced state policy at the Soviet Writers’ Congress in 1934 in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other socialist countries. Like Social Realism, Socialist Realism also met with fierce denunciations and controversy. However, despite its caricature as a style that depicts people as naïve, happy, joyous ciphers, its originators condemned any attempt to portray people living in an idyllic paradise as the work of shallow artists who would never be taken seriously by the populace:

“An artist who tried to represent the birth of socialism as an idyll, who tried to represent the socialist system, which is being born in hard-fought battles, as a paradise populated by ideal people – such an artist would not be a realist, would not be able to convince anyone by his works. The artist should show how socialism is built out of the bricks of the past, out of the material which the past has left us, out of the material which we ourselves create in the sweat of our brow, in the blood of our toil and struggle, in, the hard battles of classes and in the hard toil of man to remould himself.” [Karl Radek] (8)

Arkady Plastov Pay Day (1951)
http://bobart.org/docent/plastov/

In the Socialist Realist artist Arkady Plastov’s Pay Day we now see people depicted as recognizable subjects, not objects. They are shown to be healthy, well-dressed and in control of their situation.

Maxim Gorky asserted a serious role for Socialist Realism going way beyond the Social Realist depictions of ‘unvarnished pictures of life's struggles’ but giving it a positive aspect of depicting action towards the future goal of a non-exploitative existence for humanity in general:

“Life, as asserted by socialist realism, is deeds, creativeness, the aim of which is the uninterrupted development of the priceless individual faculties of man, with a view to his victory over the forces of nature, for the sake of his health and longevity, for the supreme joy of living on an earth which, in conformity with the steady growth of his requirements, he wishes to mould throughout into a beautiful dwelling place for mankind, united into a single family.” (9)

Revolutionary Romanticism

Of course, there are paintings which depict ecstatically happy and joyous people and this kind of art might be better described as Revolutionary Romanticism in that it serves in an aspirational capacity to encourage the masses to follow the desires or policies of the state. They are romantic in that they are based on a strongly imaginative or emotional appeal to what is heroic, adventurous, or idealized. Revolutionary Romanticism has always been controversial too, from Eugène Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People (1830) to the art today of various states and organizations and the polemical debate it has engendered.

Zhang Daxin Mama comes on a tractor (1960)
http://chineseposters.net/posters/e15-828.php

In a Chinese poster from 1960 we see farmer mothers and children in a creche depicted in a Revolutionary Romantic style.

However, despite the cynicism often engendered by such art it would be a mistake to underestimate the power and strong emotive impact of the romantic vision to spark changes in society. Michael Lowy writes:

“[Romanticism] can be defined as a rebellion against modern capitalist society, in the name of past or pre-modern social and cultural values, as a protest against the modern desenchantment of the world, the individualist/competitive dissolution of human communities, and the triumph of mechanisation, mercantilisation, reification, quantification. Torn between its nostalgia for the past and its dreams for the future, it can take regressive forms, proposing a return to pre-capitalist ways of life, or revolutionary/utopian ones, when the feelings for the lost paradise are invested in the hope for a new society.” (10)

The role of art in helping bring about change by connecting with progressive movements, ideas and politics and refusing to be stifled or misdirected will develop a new mutual respect between the artist and the public.

As Max Blechman notes, “When today aesthetic life is increasingly defined by advertising and corporate culture, and democracy has more to do with the power of private interests than the power of the public imagination, the romantic insistence on the liberatory dimension of aesthetics and on radical democracy may yet prove crucial to contemporary efforts to envision a new political freedom.” (11)

Notes

(1) Linda Nochlin Realism (Penguin Books, 1983) p112
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1848_Revolution
(3) Linda Nochlin Realism (Penguin Books, 1983) p181
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courbet
(6) http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O3-realism.html
(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism
(8) Karl Radek ‘Contemporary World Literature and the Tasks of Proletarian Art’ (1934)
http://marxists.org/archive/radek/1934/sovietwritercongress.htm
(9) Maxim Gorky ‘Soviet Literature’ (1934)
http://marxists.org/archive/gorky-maxim/1934/soviet-literature.htm
(10) Michael Lowy ‘The revolutionary romanticism of May 68’ (2002)
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article4265
(11) Max Blechman, Ed. Revolutionary Romanticism: A Drunken Boat Anthology (1999)
http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100337250

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

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(Social) Realism: Granada Art

2010-10-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Eric Johnn
Eric Johnn was born in northern Grenada in the village of Mt. Rose, St. Patrick's. As time went on, the artwork of Eric Johnn took on new form and shape, and so did the political as well as social dimension of Grenada. At 17, he won a scholarship to study painting at Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela. The exposure in Venezuela helped motivate the youngster to paint more and to experiment with different art mediums.

His work captures every major facet of Grenadian life. The island being the lush, exotic and agricultural gem it is, provided the ambitious young painter a wealth of opportunity to paint fish vendors- nutmeg and mangoes, gossiping women, a rum shop masterpiece, an old man relaxing with his dog and yard fowl next to him or a scene at the beach. When in 1983 Grenada became the center of international intrigue because of a US-Led invasion. The canvas of Eric Johnn depicted that event in vivid form.

Eric Johnn now lives in New York City, but despite the glamour of big city life, his paintings still reflect the charm and calm of beautiful Grenada.In 1997 Eric Johnn graduated with honors from the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In 1999 he earned a Master's degree in art from Lehman College in the Bronx. Eric now works with the Department of Education of New York City as an art teacher and art consultant.
http://www.grenada.addr.com/bio.htm
http://www.grenada.addr.com/art2.htm

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

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(Social) Realism: Sierra Leone Art

2010-10-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

Richmond Garrick (1961)
Born 1961, Freetown, Sierra Leone, Richmond Garrick received formal training at Milton Margai Teachers college where he got his Higher Teachers Certificate. He later earned an Associate Degree In Marketing Art/Design and pursued his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts at Montclair State University and his Masters Degree at Rutgers, Mason Gross School For The Arts. He was a school teacher at St Joseph's Secondary School and Annie Walsh Memorial School in Sierra Leone. He also served as Ad-Junct Professor at both Mason Gross School for the Arts, Rutgers University and Middlesex County College in New Jersey. Richmond presently works as a designer for Webcraft Technologies. He is still involved in music (on the production side).
http://www.davalgeebrothers.com/hist09.htm
http://www.richmondgarrick.com/
http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?artid=45839

#

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

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(Social) Realism: Samoa Art

2010-10-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

Dan Taulapapa McMullin
Both his parents are Samoan from American Samoa, his paternal grandfather came from a Jewish Irish family of Dublin. Taulapapa grew up in Japan, Germany, California, Hawai'i and American Samoa. He resides in the hills of Laguna, California. His performance poem The Bat and other early works received a 1997 Poets&Writers Award from The Writers Loft. His film Sinalela won the 2002 Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival Best Short Film Award. His 2004 poetry chapbook A Drag Queen Named Pipi is available through Tinfish Press of Honolulu. He wrote a film script Shark in the Woods for director Merata Mita, with producers Cliff Curtis and Ruth Bolan, which is in production.
http://www.taulapapa.com/biography.html
http://www.taulapapa.com/paintings.html
http://colourmefiji.com/2008/08/

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

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(Social) Realism Themes: Children (Part 2)

2010-10-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

(Social) Realism Themes: Children (Part 1)

2010-10-04T15:04:00.001-07:00

(Social) Realism: Moldova Art

2010-09-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Mihai Grecu (1916 - 1998)
Mihai Grecu (November 22, 1916, Faraonivka - 1998, Chişinău) was a painter from Moldova.
http://www.arta.neonet.md/pictura/mgrecu/en/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihai_Grecu

Valentina Rusu-Ciobanu (1920)
Born in Chisinau on October 28th 1920
http://www.arta.neonet.md/pictura/vrusu/en/

Aurel David (1935 - 1984)
18.06.1935, Chisinau - 30.06.1984, Chisinau
http://www.arta.neonet.md/pictura/adavid/en/

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

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(Social) Realism: North Korea art

2010-09-25T03:20:00.000-07:00

Kim Chu-gyŏng (1902-1981)
A native of North Ch'ungch'ŏng Province, Kim graduated from the Tōkyō School of Fine Arts in 1928, and upon returning to Korea became one of the country's most prominent oil painters. Until the late 1930s, Kim experimented successfully with a variety of different styles. However, as illustrated by the images and an illustrated essay in a 1938 book published with his close friend, painter O Chi-ho, towards the end of the colonial period he found his own style in a special kind of Post-Impressionist mode: landscapes depicting the sky and clouds with heavy object colors, and flowers, trees, people in strong bright greens and/or violet. Some of the stylistic elements typical for Kim's work survived the post-Liberation era—he favored desolate landscapes that often seem almost geometrically calculated, and used a reduced palette of colors.
http://koreaweb.ws/nkart/xz9.html

Kim Man-hyŏng (1916-1984)
A native of Kaesŏng, Kim, like Yi K'wae-dae, studied oil painting at the Imperial Art Academy in Tokyo where he graduated in 1940. From 1937, he regularly displayed portraits and landscapes in the Korean national art exhibition (Sŏnjŏn), and during the last three years of the war was also involved in the production of propaganda war art for the Japanese army (such as magazine cover designs, posters, etc.). After Liberation, while still living in Seoul, Kim joined the Korean Artists Union and actively engaged in leftist politics.
http://koreaweb.ws/nkart/xz11.html

Han Sang-ik (1917-1997)
Born in 1917 near Hamhŭng in northern Korea, Han studied at the Imperial Art Academy in Tokyo and after the Korean War became professor at the P'yŏngyang University of Fine Arts. Han's works have appeared in North Korean magazines since the late 1950s. He was honored with the highest awards (such as "People's Artist") by the Kim regime, and together with Ch'oe Ch'ang-sŏng held a two-man exhibition in 1995 in P'yŏngyang's International Culture Center. Seascapes, beach and harbor scenes were his favored subject matters.
http://koreaweb.ws/nkart/xz13.html

Im Hyok
http://blogs.todayonline.com/forartssake/tag/mansudae-art-studio/

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

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(Social) Realism: Rwanda Art

2010-09-22T12:03:00.001-07:00

Collin Sekajugo (1980)
A painter by profession, Sekajugo's own work explores how light, shadow, color and texture interacts to make his subject rise "off the canvas".
http://www.ivukaarts.com/artists/collin-sekajugo/
http://republicbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2009/05/reaching-out-gisimba-orphanage-silent.html

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism: Montenegro Art

2010-09-20T01:53:00.001-07:00

Ilija Šobajić (1876 - 1953)
http://www.montenegrina.net/pages/pages1/likovna_umjetnost/sobajic_ilija_d_radovanovic.html

Spiridon - Bocaric Spiro (1876 - 1941)
http://www.montenegrina.net/pages/pages1/likovna_umjetnost/spiro_bocaric.htm

Gojko Berkuljan (1923-1989)
Gojko Berkuljan (1923-1989) belonged to the first generation of Montenegrin painters educated immediately after World War II in the Art School in Herceg Novi. In this period Berkuljan created under the influence of Milo Milunović and Peter Lubarda like some of his colleagues, but in the early fifties took his own way, which had many stages, ranging from "modern traditionalism" to abstraction. Regardless of the heterogeneous work, Berkuljan's inspiration was based primarily on Montenegrin scenery and epic. The largest number of sketches for thematic phases, the artist logically evolved during fifties. As he used to to say, he was interested in "the development of ideas and research, not just to one artistic expression, regardless how recognized or accepted it was.
http://www.mnmuseum.org/Projects_3.htm
http://www.montenegrina.net/pages/pages1/likovna_umjetnost/g_berkuljan/galerija.html

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism Themes: Music, Song and Dance

2010-09-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

(Social) Realism Themes: Fishermen

2010-09-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

Singapore

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/06/social-realism-sri-lanka.html

Ireland

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/03/irish-social-realism.html

Myanmar {Burma}

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/07/social-realism-myanmarburma.html

Malta

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/08/social-realism-malta-art.html

Norway

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/05/social-realism-norway.html

Singapore

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/05/social-realism-singapore.html

Denmark

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/05/social-realism-denmark.html

United States

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/03/american-social-realism.html

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism Themes: Industrial Workers

2010-09-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

Albania

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/05/social-realism-albania.html

Uzbekistan

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/08/social-realism-uzbekistan.html

Azerbaijan

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/06/social-realism-azerbaijan.html

Australia

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/03/social-realism-australia.html

Ireland

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/03/irish-social-realism.html

Denmark

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/05/social-realism-denmark.html

Egypt

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-realism-egypt.html

United States

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/03/american-social-realism.html

Mongolia

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/06/social-realism-mongolia.html

Bulgaria

http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-realism-bulgaria.html

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism: Libya Art

2010-09-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Merim Abani (1973)
Born in Tripoli in 1973, Merim Abani graduated from the National Art Academy in 1995 and had her first solo show at Gallery de Villa in 1996. She has participated in many joint exhibitions in Libya and beyond. Abani's work falls somewhere between observing nature and experimenting with traditional forms. She depicts her subjects in a traditional way, but image and message are not the same thing.
http://www.imow.org/exhibitions/past?id=6

Asmahan El Ferjani
http://www.libyana.org/art/

Abdelmutalib Fhema
http://www.libyana.org/art/

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

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(Social) Realism: Seychelles Art

2010-09-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

Michael Adams (1937)
Michael is one of the Seychelles' best known artists, and was given an MBE by Queen Elisabeth in 2001 for this services to art in the Seychelles. He specialises in colourfast watercolours and silkscreen prints of people, land and seascapes – often with subliminal signals referring to the Garden of Eden.
http://www.michaeladamsart.com/
http://www.expertafrica.com/country_info/Seychelles/Art_in_the_Seychelles.htm
http://www.michaeladams.info/art/index.html

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

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(Social) Realism: Kazakhstan Art

2010-09-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sakhi Romanov (1926-2002)
Folk artist of Kazakhstan (1981). Artist of the cinema, graph, painter. Finished the All-union institute of cinematography (1955). Worked on a studio «Kazakhfil'm», was the artist-producer of many interesting films, that imposed an imprint on all his machine creation. His painting is energetic, multicoloured and showy.
http://www.artofcentralasia.com/en/artists/45/

Shardenov Zhanatai
Folk artist of Kazakhstan. Has finished Almaty theatrically-art school of the name of Gogol in 1949 and two years studied in the Leningrad institute of painting, sculptures and architectures of the name of Repin. Leading landscape-painter of Kazakhstan, possessed the especially individual handwriting. Worked in a pastes manner, very liked to paint mountains.
http://www.artofcentralasia.com/en/artists/38

Sharipov A. (1964)
Was born in 1964 in Gijduvan Bukharas area. Graduated the Samarkand State Architecturally-building Institute it. Mirzo-Ulugbeka in 1989. Taught on faculty of figure up to 2000.
http://www.artofcentralasia.com/en/artists/39

Rashid Kulbatyrov Utepbergenovich (1967)
Rashid Kulbatyrov Utepbergenovich was born in 1967 in Aktobe region. He has graduated from Art department in Aktobe city on 1986 and from Abaya Graphic Art Department on 1995. He takes an active part in international and national exhibitions. Held several solo exhibitions (City: Aktau, Almaty, Aktobe, Astana). 2002 Winner of the international youth festival «Shabyt». 2005 International Festival «The Caspian Sea of Friendship» 3 place.Besides painting Kulbatyrov Rashid wrote watercolor, light and filled with air, but with a carefully prescribed details.In the work of this artist can see a few prevailing view, it is – the landscape, everyday scenes and games that illustrate the ancient traditions of the nomads. In all landscapes Rashid, either watercolor or oil, there is a special inner state of harmony, which allows you to «tune in» to the contemplation of and appreciate the beauty of work.Pictures Kulbatyrov Rashid writes in a light, expressive style, perfectly conveying dynamic strokes racing clouds and foaming waves of the sea or the excitement of the races. The works of this artist mountains, made in silver scale, appear before the audience beautiful and majestic.
http://www.eng.artvivat.kz/index.php/category/famous-kazakh-painters/
http://oyu.kz/gallery/modern.html

Fridlin Yevgeniy (1974)
Was born in 1974 in Pavlodar. Has ended Pavlodar art college, the winner of the nominal premium of Aubakir Ismailov, festival " Shabyt-2003 " Works are in: the Pavlodar regional art museum (Pavlodar), the Museum of the fine arts of Family Nevzorovy (Semey), the State museum of arts of name Kasteev (Almaty), assembly of ATF-BANK (Almaty), gallery of the modern art "Ular" , private collections of Kazakhstan, Poland, Germany, the USA, France, Italy...
http://www.artofcentralasia.com/en/artists/42

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism: Tonga Art

2010-09-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

Samiu Napa’a
Samiu Napa’a was born in Tonga, hailing from the village of in Fua’amotu, Tongatapu. Napa’a migrated to New Zealand with his mother in 1998. Cross-crediting from Tupou College to Sir Edmund Hillary College in Otara, South Auckland, he went on to attend Whitecliffe School of Art & Design and later Manukau School of Visual Arts. Whilst completing only three years of the four year Bachelor of Visual Arts degree programme, Napa’a has continued to develop his painting, undertaking commissions and exhibiting in joint and group exhibitions.
http://samiunapaa.wordpress.com/about/
http://colourmefiji.com/2009/09/01/new-work-by-samiu-napaa-2/
http://www.tautaipacific.com/samiu-napa-a/

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.

(Social) Realism: Tajikistan Art

2010-09-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Bakhtiyor Odinaev
Artist Stage Manager. Born in Khujand and graduated from Olimov State Art College of Dushanbe in 1974. Since 1976, he is the – costumes designer for “Tajikfilm”, “Belarusfilm” and “Mosfilm” studios. Since 1992, he has been a Lecturer of Olimov State Art College. Since 1987, he is member of the confederation of the USSR cinematography Union and of the USSR Union of Artists. He has participated in national and international exhibitions.
http://www.tajikart.com/index.php
http://www.tajikart.com/index.php?artist=Bakhtiyor%20Odinaev&action=showall

Farruh Negmat-Zadeh (1959)
Born in 1959 in Dushanbe, and graduated from Moscow Art School and from Surikov State Art Institute of Moscow (1983). He is member of the Union of Artists of Tajikistan and has participated in USSR and international exhibitions.
http://www.tajikart.com/index.php
http://www.tajikart.com/index.php?artist=Farruh%20Negmat-Zadeh&action=showall

World (Social) Realist Art (Index of Countries)
This blog page is part of an ongoing project by artist and part-time lecturer Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (http://gaelart.net/) to explore Realist / Social Realist art from around the world. The term Realism is used in its broadest sense to include 19th century Realism and Naturalism as well as 20th century Impressionism (which after all was following in the path of Courbet and Millet). Social Realism covers art that seeks to examine the living and working conditions of ordinary people (examples include German Expressionism, American Ashcan School and the Mexican Muralists).

Click here for (Social) Realist Art Definitions, World (Social) Realism and Global Solidarity, Art and Politics, Social Realism in history and Country Index.

Suggestions for appropriate artists from around the world welcome to caoimhghin@yahoo.com.