in such images, it feels as though art is temporarily setting aside its distorting conventions and showing daily life as it actually is. Realism isn't quite the right term - there is no emphasis on the brute facts of labour or poverty associated with industrial-era Realist art. Instead, the viewer senses an affectionate but slightly distanced or amused observation, and feels a certain relief at not being put to the test by learned allusions. art,for once, appears to be playing it straight.