Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Art and the world’s peoples

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin | 28.06.2010 11:19 | Culture | Other Press

New internet global database of painting and drawing
( http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-realism-art-country-list.html)

Mongolian artist S. Dondog
Mongolian artist S. Dondog


"We have been poor for hundreds of years, even thousands of years, and they are living in their fancy resorts and mansions’"

This quote from one of the ‘Red Shirt’ protestors in the recent demonstrations in Thailand was an example of the process known there “as ta sawang, or a ‘brightening of the eyes’ – an awakening, a realization of a truth they had not recognized” (International Herald Tribune 21 May 2010).

It was journalism which would brighten the eyes of the artist John Sloan, a member of the American Ash Can group of realist painting in the early 1900s. According to David E. Shi in 'Facing Facts: Realism in American Thought and Culture 1850-1920', journalism “led them to see life up close, as an immense sprawling, kaleidoscopic affair, often sordid and ugly, but always interesting”. Sloan believed that “his journalistic work alerted him to the beauty in commonplace things and people.”

Another well known artist, the Irish painter Jack B. Yeats, started his career by making drawings for various magazines around the same time. In 'Jack B. Yeats: A Biography', Hilary Pyle writes: “The strong realism, the enjoyment of the ridiculous and of fantasy, and the dry humour, not always obvious, in these Punch drawings, all originated in a deep sympathy with humanity, and produced in his last paintings great works of art.”

This interest in life - people and their environment - by visual artists took on a new meaning as unidealised scenes of modern life took over from historical, mythological, and religious subjects. The growing movement towards Realism began in France in the 1850s with Courbet’s belief in objective reality as a basis for art, rebelling against the exaggerated emotionalism of the Romantic Movement. Following in the path of Courbet, the Impressionists also set out ‘to be true to nature’ and went out into the countryside to find subjects for their art.

Since these earlier, heady days of Realism many artists have expanded the variety of forms, content and themes of art concerned to show economic hardship, social and racial injustice, and political struggle or else to simply try and understand our relationship with the natural and built environment. As Modernism became the dominant force in the art world in the twentieth century many of its differing forms were adopted around the world in the pursuit of a socially-based art. All over the world today there is art being made by artists reflecting local and international themes following in the tradition founded by Courbet. Examples of such art can be seen by clicking on the list of countries on my blog at  http://gaelart.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-realism-art-country-list.html. Countries mentioned below will refer to this list.

Development of Different Forms

From the middle of the nineteenth century socially-based art took on many forms from Naturalism (accurate and precise details, and portraying things as they are) to Realism (not necessarily depicted exactly as they are in shape, colour, tone, etc.).

With the arrival of Modernism on the art scene some artists used Impressionism (emphasis on light in its changing qualities) [Spain, Czech Republic] while others used Expressionism (distortion for emotional effect) [Germany, Thailand, Israel] as the basis for their art.

Art that specifically addressed social issues, called Social Realism, became very popular in the 1930s [USA]. Since then other forms such as Naive Art [Cambodia], Super Realism [Iran] and even some elements of Cubism [Philippines] and Abstract art [Iraq] have appeared. Local folk art traditions have also had a major influence in some parts of the world today [Singapore, Palestinian Territory, Tunisia, Syria, Vietnam].

Content: Common Themes

Workers
The depiction of agricultural workers in the form of peasants and farmers was one of the early themes of Realist art as artists left the studio to paint en plein air [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_plein_air] [Peru, Cuba, United Kingdom, Finland, Netherlands, France].

Industrial workers are a common theme [Mongolia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Albania, Egypt, Australia, Germany, Ireland, USA, Azerbaijan] along with craft workers [Peru, Denmark] and fishermen [Denmark, Norway, France].

Images of work covered themes from building power stations [Ireland, USA, China ], markets [Haiti, Singapore, Iraq, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Latvia, Lithuania, Algeria, Armenia, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Russia], women working [Taiwan, Kenya, Cuba, Cyprus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia, Norway, Syria, Sweden, Brazil, Pakistan], to low paid jobs [Zambia].

Women and children
Many artists depicted women in oppressive situations, women reading [Iran, Azerbaijan], women with guns [Albania, Serbia, Palestinian Territory, Vietnam, Belarus], and children [Belgium].

Social and political themes
Many themes are covered from poverty at home [Romania, Armenia, Argentina, Ireland, Russia]; migration and evictions [United Kingdom, Guatemala, Ukraine, Belgium, Algeria, Ireland]; poverty, prison, disease, hunger, and death [Uruguay, Switzerland, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Hungary, Venezuela, Spain, Ireland, Russia]; unemployment [Argentina, USA]; abortion [Portugal ], torture, death, and political repression [Cambodia, Thailand, Kenya, South Africa, South Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, USA]; war [Canada, Austria, Ireland]; demonstrations and strikes [United Kingdom, Ghana, Nicaragua, South Korea, Lithuania, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Argentina, Ireland, Russia, Democratic Republic of Congo, USA]; political activism and meetings [Denmark, Albania, South Africa, Lithuania, France, Democratic Republic of Congo, USA]; civil war, revolution and executions [Italy, Ireland, Russia, Mexico, USA] and colonialism [France, Spain].

Culture
Cultural themes include: the role of the artist [Mongolia, Albania]; music and dance [Sweden, Dominican Republic, Senegal, Japan, Cyprus, Chile, Syria, Brazil, Slovenia, Ireland, USA, Azerbaijan]; dress [New Zealand, Morocco, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Spain, Azerbaijan]; bars and cafes [Poland, Estonia, Australia, Germany, Ireland, USA]; boxing and wrestling [Ireland, USA, Azerbaijan]; native peoples [New Zealand, Israel]; and murals [Chile, Croatia, Columbia, Mexico].

Environment
The depiction of the natural and built environment covers: landscapes [Bosnia, Iceland, Norway, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Finland, Brazil, Czech Republic, Greece], seascapes [Spain, USA] and cityscapes [Nigeria, USA].

From all of the above discussion of social and political themes it can be seen that many artists the world over choose to involve themselves in the life and debates of their country. In the words of the painter Paraskeva Clark (1898-1986) [Canada]:

"Those who give their lives, their knowledge and their time to social struggle have the right to expect great help from the artist. And I cannot imagine a more inspiring role than that which the artist is asked to play for the defence and advancement of civilization."

(Anne Newlands 'Canadian Art: From Its Beginnings to 2000'. Firefly Books Ltd. (2000) pp. 74)


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/).

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
- e-mail: caoimhghin@yahoo.com
- Homepage: http://gaelart.net/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech