Sculpture in Socialist Realism—Soviet Patterns and the Polish Reality

Agnieszka Tomaszewicz

doi:10.3390/arts11010006

Abstract

Socialist realism was more than just a trend in art. It was also, and perhaps predominantly, a method of educating the new post-revolutionary society in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In socialism, the state became the commissioner, consumer, and critic of art, treating it as a major propaganda tool. It is thus not surprising that the socialist realism patterns were imposed on artists working in those countries which found themselves in the Soviet sphere of influence after the end of the Second World War. In Poland, which was the Soviet Union’s closest neighbour and one of the larger countries in the post-war “Eastern Bloc”, socialist realism was the only permitted creative method in the years 1949–1956. The ideologists of the new art assigned a special role to sculpture, which, next to posters and murals, was considered the most socially accessible form of artistic expression due to the possibility of placing it in public space. Monuments as material carriers of ideology were used as an expression of power, but they also marked the places of strengthening collective identity. During the period of socialist realism in Poland, sculptural activity followed the main three directions: heroic, portrait, and architectural–decorative. Therefore, this paper aims to present theoretical and ideological assumptions relating to socialist sculpture and their confrontation with realisations in Poland during the period of the Soviet artistic doctrine. The paper also presents the aesthetic paradigms of socialist sculptures and their relationships with the canons of European art, and, for Poland, also with the native art, mainly sacral.

Highlights

State of ResearchThe art of socialist realism was a doctrine that required artists to present “a true—as recorded in 1934 in the Statute of USSR Writers—concrete historical picture of reality in its revolutionary development
The above-quoted definition of socialist realism, one of the earliest ones, does not leave any illusions about the purpose of introducing a new artistic direction, which consisted of social propaganda and the associated control of artists and their creations
The foundations of socialist realism were programmatically laid in Soviet Russia, based on Lenin’s “Plan of monumental propaganda”; artist training institutions educating the performers of “committed works” were intensively built

Summary

Introduction

The art of socialist realism was a doctrine that required artists to present “a true—as recorded in 1934 in the Statute of USSR Writers—concrete historical picture of reality in its revolutionary development. Truth and historical relevance must be linked to the ideological reconstruction and education of the working people in the socialist spirit” In the 1930s, as a result of Stalin’s personal choices, socialist realism was opposed to the avant-garde and became the only valid trend in Soviet art. Socialist realism works were intended to “strengthen the will and courage of socialist society, the sense of brotherhood of nations, love of the fatherland”, developing “the artistic taste in people, enriching them with new ideas and pointing the way forward” Socialist realism works were intended to “strengthen the will and courage of socialist society, the sense of brotherhood of nations, love of the fatherland”, developing “the artistic taste in people, enriching them with new ideas and pointing the way forward” (Бoльшaя 1947, p. 244)

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