social realism

Four dangerous visionary writers

17 February 2024 9:00 am

Simon Ings examines the lives of Maxim Gorky, Maurice Barrès, Gabriele D’Annunzio and Ding Ling, whose propagandism helped shape – and misshape – the 20th century

Colourful, tender and sweet, grounded in magical rather than social realism: Scrapper reviewed

26 August 2023 9:00 am

Scrapper is a film about a working-class kid who, after her mother dies, has to look after herself. I know…

Joan Eardley deserves to be ranked alongside Bacon and de Kooning

17 July 2021 9:00 am

Claudia Massie on the unjustly neglected artist Joan Eardley, who deserves to be ranked alongside Auerbach, Bacon and de Kooning

A hard watch, but ultimately a rewarding one: County Lines reviewed

5 December 2020 9:00 am

County Lines is the kind of social realism that the British do so well, if not too well. In other…

My knuckles went pure white and have yet to return to full colour: Custody reviewed

14 April 2018 9:00 am

Custody is both social realism and a thriller and it’s terrific. It is smart, beautifully acted, never crass about the…

Tate Modern’s latest show feels like it’s from another planet

18 October 2014 9:00 am

‘Some day we shall no longer need pictures: we shall just be happy.’ — Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, 1966…