Kitchen Sink Realism

Kitchen Sink Realism (sink - realism) was an English cultural movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The direction existed both in the theater, as well as in the visual arts, films and television.

The term "kitchen sink" originated from an expressionist painting by John Bratby, which contained the image of a kitchen sink. The critic David Sylvester wrote in 1954 an article about new trends of English art. He called the article " The Kitchen Sink", in relation to Bratbys paintings. Sylvester submitted that there were among the young artists an increased interest in " domestic scenes ", where the emphasis lies on the simplicity of life. Bratby painted several kitchen items such as sieves and spoons, but not without representation in this semi-abstract forms. He also painted bathrooms and created three paintings of toilets. More " Kitchen sink " artists were, for example, Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith. They formed together, the " Kitchen sink school".

The term was quickly applied to a new Dramenart and emerging novels. Kitchen sink was a realistic representation of social life. Houses in the countryside and meadows were out, iron shelves and other domestic facilities were in; as in John Osborne's play " Look Back in Anger " in which such things, prominently, for example, an iron, objects of the stage action were. This was a reaction against the style that Noel Coward and Terence Rattigan represented. Alluding to Osborne's play " Look Back in Anger " a group of British dramatists and writers who represented in their works Kitchen Sink Realism and their heroes were mostly " angry young men " of the working class as " Angry Young Men " movement was designated. These included, inter alia, the playwright Arnold Wesker and Shelagh Delaney and the novelist Kingsley Amis and Alan Sillitoe.