Jack Levine was an American Social Realist painter and printmaker best known for his satires on modern life, political corruption, and biblical narratives. Levine is considered one of the key artists of the Boston Expressionist movement.
Finger of Newt 1993-1998
Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures behind these conditions. While the movement's characteristics vary from nation to nation, it almost always uses a form of descriptive or critical realism.
Grant Wood's magnum opus American Gothic, 1930, has become a widely known (and often parodied) icon of social realism.
Charles de Groux, The Blessing, 1860
Jacob Riis, Bandit's Roost, 1888, from How the Other Half Lives. Bandit's Roost at 59½ Mulberry Street was considered the most crime-ridden part of New York City.
Gustave Courbet, A Burial At Ornans