Magic realism

also: Magical realism · Magischer Realismus · Realismo mágico

style aesthetic c. 1925-present Germany Europe

Magic realism names an approach that renders the everyday with such exacting, smooth clarity that its hidden strangeness begins to show. The term was coined by the German critic Franz Roh in 1925 for post-expressionist painting of the kind later gathered under Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity): ordinary subjects, minute detail, and a cool stillness that makes the familiar feel uncanny. Roh contrasted it with Surrealism, which imports dreams from outside, while magic realism finds mystery inside things as they are. Through Massimo Bontempelli the label travelled to Italy and, as realismo mágico, to Latin America, where it became mostly literary. In mid-century America it broadened to include work with faint overtones of wonder - Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World is the emblem - and the term keeps gathering new practitioners.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Extreme, photographic clarity in the rendering of mundane subject matter
  • Minute detail preserved even in expansive scenes and large landscapes
  • A cool, still, suspended atmosphere that makes ordinary things feel strange
  • Mystery shown as inherent in the object rather than added as overt fantasy
  • Calm recession of space set against a lingering sense of distance and unease
  • Later variants admit gentle overtones of the fantastic into everyday settings

Key figures

  • Franz Roh (1890-1965) — German critic who coined magischer Realismus in his 1925 book on post-expressionist painting
  • Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) — Italian metaphysical painter whose enigmatic piazzas were a precursor to the style
  • Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960) — Italian writer who carried Roh's term into literature and the magazine 900 (1926)
  • Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) — American painter of Christina's World, the touchstone of magic realism's wonder-tinged realism

Example works

Sources

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