- Capitalist realism
Capitalist realism refers to either a German art movement of the early 1960s, or the characteristic style of
advertising in the 1980s.Art
The phrase's earliest appearance was as the title of the 1963
art exhibition in Düsseldorf, "Demonstration for Capitalist Realism", featuring the work ofGerhard Richter ,Sigmar Polke ,Wolf Vostell andKonrad Lueg . [Hugh Honour, "A World History of Art", Laurence King Publishing, p847. ISBN 1856694518] Lueg went on to represent his friend's work as the galleristKonrad Fischer (in the exhibition he had used his mother's maiden name).Capitalist realism can also be used to describe commodity-based art in general, from
Pop Art in the 1950s and 1960s to the commodity art of the 1980s and 1990s. [Joan Gibbons, Art And Advertising, I.B.Tauris, p53. ISBN 1850435863]Advertising
The initial coining of the term was formed in the context of German Pop Art in the early 1960s. The second instance of the term cropped up in the mid 1980s when Michael Schudson used it to describe mainstream practices in advertising. [Joan Gibbons, Art And Advertising, I.B.Tauris, p55. ISBN 1850435863] Chapter seven of Schudson's "Advertising: The Uneasy Persuasion" compares the messages and appeals of advertising to those found in the
Socialist Realism of theSoviet Union . In his account, the realism of advertising promotes a way of life based on private consumption, rather than social, public achievement. [Barry Richards, Iain MacRury, Jackie Botterill, "The Dynamics of Advertising", Routledge, 2000, p99. ISBN 9058230856]References
Bibliography
* Michael Schudson. "Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion: Its Dubious Impact on American Society", (New York : Basic Books) 1984. ISBN 0465000800
* John Caldwell, "Sigmar Polke", (San Francisco:San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) 1990, p 9
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