The term "capitalist realism" has been used, particularly in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, to describe

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic goods, good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the Market (economics), market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to w ...

-based art, from Pop Art in the 1950s and 1960s to the commodity art of the 1980s and 1990s. When used in this way, it is a play on the term " socialist realism". Alternatively, it has been used to describe the ideological-aesthetic aspect of contemporary

corporate capitalism In social science and economics, corporate capitalism is a capitalist marketplace characterized by the dominance of hierarchical and bureaucratic corporations. Overview In the developed world, corporations dominate the marketplace, compri ...

in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

In art

Although attested earlier, the phrase "capitalist realism" was first used in the title of the 1963

art exhibition An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is occasionally true, it is stated to be a "permanen ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, ''Demonstration for Capitalist Realism'', which featured the work of

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s, ...

Wolf Vostell Wolf Vostell (14 October 1932 – 3 April 1998) was a German painter and sculptor, considered one of the early adopters of video art and installation art and pioneer of Happenings and Fluxus. Techniques such as blurring and Dé-coll/age are ...

, and Konrad Lueg. The exhibition's participants focused upon depictions of Germany's growing consumer culture and media-saturated society with strategies, in part, influenced by those of their American Pop counterparts. In May 1963 the exhibition ''Living with Pop: A Demonstration for Capitalist Realism'' took place in the furniture showroom Berges in Düsseldorf. For this 'demonstration' Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg hung their works alongside furniture showcased on plinths and presented themselves as artworks.

Sigmar Polke

Capitalist realism is a German art movement co-founded in 1963 by artist

. Polke embraced the advertising and publicity commonly found in the popular press in renderings of everyday consumer items. Often ironic and with critical overtones of society and politics, the Capitalist Realism movement is considered more explicitly political than conventional Pop Art.

Michael Schudson

In the mid-1980s,

Michael Schudson Michael S. Schudson Michael S. Schudson (born November 3, 1946) is professor of journalism in the graduate school of journalism of Columbia University and adjunct professor in the department of sociology. He is professor emeritus at the Universi ...

used the term "capitalist realism" to describe mainstream practices in advertising. Chapter seven of Schudson's ''Advertising: The Uneasy Persuasion'' compares the messages and appeals of advertising to those found in the Socialist Realism of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In his account, the realism of advertising promotes a way of life based on private consumption, rather than social, public achievement.

Mark Fisher

The term next appeared in 2009 with the publication of Mark Fisher's book '' Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?.''Mark Fisher, ''Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?'' (Winchester, UK; Washington .C. Zero, 2009); (pbk.); 1846943175 (pbk.). Fisher argues that the term "capitalist realism" best describes the current global political situation, which lacks visible alternatives to the capitalist system which became dominant following the fall of the

. His argument is a response to, and critique of,

neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...

and new forms of government which apply the logic of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and the market to all aspects of governance. His ideology refers to a perceived "widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it". As a philosophical concept, capitalist realism is influenced by the

Althusserian Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

conception of ideology. Fisher proposes that within a capitalist framework there is no space to conceive of alternative forms of social structures, adding that younger generations are not even concerned with recognizing alternatives. He proposes that the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

compounded this position. Rather than catalyzing a desire to seek alternatives to the existing model, the crisis reinforced the notion that modifications must be made within the existing system. Rather than shake it loose from its foundations, the crash confirmed to the populace the necessity of capitalism.

Capitalist realism as I understand it cannot be confined to art or to the quasi-propagandistic way in which advertising functions. It is more like a pervasive atmosphere, conditioning not only the production of culture but also the regulation of work and education, and acting as a kind of invisible barrier constraining thought and action.

Fisher argues that "capitalist realism has successfully installed a 'business

ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...

' in which it is ''simply obvious'' that everything in society, including healthcare and education, should be run as a business" (cf. New Public Management). Following the publication of Fisher's work, the term has been picked up by other literary critics. The term has also been used by Japanese scholar Yoshifusa Ichii to characterize the way that the International Olympic Committee and its stakeholders, along with the Japanese state, took advantage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the COVID-19 pandemic in order to further expand capitalist profits, state power, and national mobilization. Ishii combines Fisher's capitalist realism with Jules Boykoff's "celebration capitalism" to explain that "the celebration capitalism of the Olympics reinforces capitalist realism by creating a state of exception, which maximizes the flow of capital while invoking the biopolitics of a “new lifestyle” that echoes wartime slogans of national mobilization."

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Caldwell, John. ''Sigmar Polke'', (San Francisco:San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) 1990, p 9 * Gibbons, Joan. ''Art And Advertising''. I.B.Tauris, * "Capitalist Realism." Artsy. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2017. {{Western art movements Art criticism Capitalism Realism (art movement) 1963 neologisms