The Giant Myth of Socialist Realism

I think I can almost smell the warm, sweet, doughy fragrance of these delectable breads. This divine offering to the Soviet gods is arranged around an edible State Emblem of the Soviet Union.

The phantasmagorical bountifulness of the delicious baked goods was painted in a country, where in some parts, people were still dying of starvation.

Ilya Mashkov’s work is the embodiment of Socialist Realism mythology – idealist, non-existent reality of absurd overabundance.

Here is what Leon Trotsky wrote about Socialist Realism in his Partisan Review essay in 1938:

“The style of present-day official Soviet painting is called ‘socialist realism’. The name itself has evidently been invented by some high functionary in the department of the arts. This ‘realism’ consists in the imitation of provincial daguerreotypes of the third quarter of the last century; the ‘socialist’ character apparently consists in representing, in the manner of pretentious photography, events which never took place.”

Trotsky really didn’t mince his words, did he.

But don’t these beautiful arrangements of breads remind you of something? They are conspicuously similar to so many #foodporn photographs, floating around in the social media ether. How many of these photos are purposefully arranged and never consumed? Or photographed endlessly, while interfering with real eating and real conversation? Or mask the reality of so many around the world, who still wake up and go to bed hungry every day? Is Instagram the new Socialist Realism?

Ilya Mashkov, Soviet bread, 1936, The State Tretyakov Gallery

Ilya Mashkov, Soviet bread, 1936, Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts

Ilya Mashkov, Moscow produce. Bread loaves., 1924, The State Tretyakov Gallery