“Real Work” by Rachel Wetzler

This article by Rachel Wetzler explores the phenomenon that realism becomes popular as an art style in times of economic crisis. While I’d learned about or seen Gustave Courbet’s works, Millet’s The Gleaners, etc., I hadn’t really thought that this tendency to depict un-glamorous labor would be applicable to our modern day crises and I certainly didn’t know that there was an uptick in this style in 2008. I really enjoyed reading about the ‘purposes’ of this type of art, e.g. to foster solidarity, encourage confrontation, prompt people to think of how out of touch they are with work processes, comment on the paradox of ‘unskilled’ labor, etc. It’s a long piece, but an interesting and very relevant one that brings up fascinating examples throughout history.