Mean Realism
‘Realist painting’ has meant many things in Europe and America over the past century, but typically it has implied a certain defiant, cornered attitude.
So argues Julian Bell, who has himself been labelled a realist painter. He uses case studies - from Félix Vallotton to Lucian Freud - to explore why this might be so. He goes on to ask whether it has to be so, and what forms of interest in the real world might reinvigorate art today.