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Soviet Realism In The Subway
Wed, 02/23/2005 - 12:06 — deadprogrammer
During its renovation Times Square seems to have been steadily acquiring the biggest and ugliest modern mosaics. The architects seem to have forseen the ugliness of the mosaics and strategically used lighting with a lot of glare to mercifully obscure the them from view. Still, even ugly Soviet Realism style "The Return of Spring" by Jack Beal is a little better than water stained cracked tile. But what is going on with this guy's hand? Running Themes100 Views of the Empire State Building
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Comments
You make a common but unfortunate error calling these murals "Soviet Realism." In fact, they are examples of "Social Realism." (compare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_realism). Unlike Soviet Realism, which was a state-imposed aesthetic, Social Realism is a genre that has deep, authentic roots in this country. New Deal art projects funded by the government included a huge amount of Social Realism. The purpose of Social Realism is to shed light on the beauty and value of workers and the work they do. Quite different from celebrating a totalitarian state.
You are right, it's Social Realism, not Soviet Realism. I was thinking of the wrong C in CCCP. That being said, I honestly don't see that much difference between American Social Realism artifacts and its doppelgangers in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In fact, I think I'll write an article about this when I get the time.
You obviously don't know your Reginald Marsh. Beal certainly does. Look him up...
Marsh seems to be way more talented than this guy. I'll pick up Reginald Marsh's New York on Amazon.
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