Реалистично изкуство и обикновени образи, на Изток и на Запад
Realistic Art and Everyday Images in the East and the West

Summary/Abstract: In this article, we propose to open a reflection about the relationship between ordinary images and realist art in the 1950s. Art historians are used to analyze the mutual transfers between avant-garde art and ordinary images; but, when it comes about socialist realism, we know very little about such transfers. We present two examples from this decade. The first one is a Belgian painting about a wounded worker – we put it in relationship with a poster about safety at work and with mass media images about accidents in the mines. The second one is a photography representing a conflictual situation on a street in Poland – the image was both a realist piece of art and a press photo, nourishing the discussion on the double nature of photography and on realism. In both cases, this questioning of the relationship to ordinary images makes it possible to explore margins of socialist realism and some crucial issues (for example here, the visualization of social antagonisms). By considering one example from the West and one from the East, the article also questions the opportunity of considering simultaneously works from the two parts of divided Europe.

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