This week, Professor Wang has been covering the topic of Realism; so what is it (capital "R" is important)? It is defined as the "representation of things according to their appearance in visible nature as observed (without idealization or embellishment). Essentially, Realism is depicting certain moments exactly as they appear without fanciful additions. An important fact to know about this movement in art history is that the main foci of Realism were completely oppositional to the Salon's (Salon refers to the "Academy") ideas of what was considered "good" art. Gustave Courbet spearheaded this movement and directly challenged the Salon's standards by painting everyday life and the working class. His work, The Stonebreakers, caused unrest within the Salon when he submitted it for formal acceptance because its content, in those days, was considered inappropriate for depiction. Why? To put it frankly, the "experts" in art academia did not see everyday life or the working class as anything remotely beautiful. Despite their rejection, Courbet cared little for what they had to say about what was "beautiful" and what was "inappropriate" and he chose to show them what he–and other artists as well–thought defined their time. The problem is no one has the final say in deciding what is "beautiful", because that decision is left up to the artist—what the viewers think is completely their own opinion. As stated in the first blog post "the value of any particular work of art is determined by the personal importance to the artist." Art is not about strict standards and guidelines, it's about provoking thought and challenging the norms.
