The fallacy is that realism has gone away and is now coming back.

The reality is that still lifes and realism have always been around.

Realism, a fidelity in art and literature to nature or to real life and to accurate representation without idealization.

Realism, in a general sense, refers to objective representation.

More specifically, a nineteenth-century movement, especially in France, that rejected idealized academic styles in favor of everyday subjects. Daumier, Millet, and Courbet were realists.

It just happened that non-realistic art got media attention because the media focuses on the shocking and controversial.

But in actuality, abstracts are a tiny fraction of the art being produced today.