Photorealism (1960s onwards)

What is Photorealism? - Characteristics

In contemporary art, the term "photorealism", "photo-realism" or "photographic realism", describes a style
of highly detailed 20th century realist painting in which the artist attempts to replicate an image from a
photograph in all its microscopic exactness. As a movement, photorealism, sometimes also referred to
as Superrealism or Hyperrealism, came to prominence in the United States during the late 1960s and
early 1970s, largely as a result of paintings by Chuck Close (b.1940) and Richard Estes (b.1936), and the
extraordinarily life-like sculpture of John De Andrea (b.1941), Duane Hanson(1925-96) and Carole
Feuerman (b.1945). Being wholly representational, photorealist art is a natural counter to contemporary
abstraction.

How Photorealist Art is Created

Most photorealist painters work directly from photographs or digital computer images -
either by using traditional grid techniques, or by projecting colour slide imagery onto the
canvas. The aim is to recreate the same sharpness of detail throughout the painting.
Subjects vary - superrealist artists tend to specialize in specific types of scene, human
figure or portrait - but invariably the subject matter is relatively prosaic and devoid of
special interest: it may even be selected purely for its technical difficulty. In any event the
main focus is on the precision and detail achieved by the artist, and its impact on the
viewer - which can be compelling.

The Impact of Photography and Digital Imaging

It is thanks to photography - a century after it first appeared - that superrealist art has
been made possible. How else could the same scene be maintained for the length of time
(days, if not weeks) required? Latterly, the appearance of computer graphic software,
capable of manipulating digital imagery, has also been a help in enlarging and analyzing
pictorial content and colour. As a result, contemporary American painters like Chuck
Close, Richard Estes and Don Eddy, have achieved a degree of detail that significantly
exceeds anything produced by the great Renaissance artists, like Jan van Eyck,
Leonardo or Titian.

In contrast, photorealism in sculpture has no relation to photography. This is because

sculpture is a three-dimensional art, whereas both painting and photography are two-
dimensional. Superrealist sculptors therefore have the same problems of technique to
overcome as Renaissance artists.

Origins and History

Photographic realism emerged in the 1960s as a style of American art, in sharp contrast
to intellectual contemporary art movements like Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism.
Although nominally a type of "realism", photorealism was not a successor to earlier types
of American realism practised by the likes of Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and Edward
Hopper (1882-1967). Instead, it was closer to Pop-Art, whose banal but instantly
recognizable imagery it shared. However photorealism has none of Pop-Art's whimsical
humour: rather it tends to be ultra impersonal, and its meticulous but indiscriminate detail
can actually produce a sense of unreality. Thus whereas Pop artists sought to highlight
the absurdity of much of the media imagery relied upon by the Consumer Society,
photorealist painters and sculptors aim to celebrate the integrity and value of an image.

Famous Photorealist Artists

The most celebrated members of the American photo-realist school include top
contemporary artists like Chuck Close (b.1940), who specializes in gigantic-scale
pictures of expressionless faces; Richard Estes (b.1936), who paints street views with
intricate glass-reflections; Audrey Flack (b.1931), who strives for emotional effect in
her vanitas painting (still lifes with moral messages); Howard Kanovitz (1929-2009),
whose works have the illusion of using figurative cut-outs; Ralph Goings, Tom
Blackwell, Robert Bechtle, and Robert Cottingham (b.1935) noted for close-ups of
advertising signs. In Europe, famous superrealists include: the Irish painter John
Doherty(b.1940), the British artists Dianne Ibbotson (b.1946), Michael
Leonard(b.1933), Michael English (b.1943), John Salt (b.1937) and Graham
Dean(b.1951), the Frenchman Claude Yvel (b.1930) and the German painter Gerhard
Richter (b.1932). Other European photorealist artists include:Roberto Bernardi, Franz
Gertsch, Clive Head, Bertrand Meniel, and Raphaella Spence. Renowned sculptors
who work in the hyperrealist style include: the Verists Duane Hanson (1925-96), noted
for his fibre-glass consumer figures; John de Andrea (b.1941), who models ultra-realist
nudes; Ron Mueck and Robert Gober.

Another Def:
Photorealism is an art movement in which artists duplicate photographs on canvases.
Either one or more photographs may be used for information gathering. The movement
became popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Photorealism

Photorealist artists base their artwork on photographs, making it look as true to the photo
as possible. Photorealism, otherwise known as Super-Realism, is an art movement that
was popularized in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movement
was a rise against Minimalism and AbstractExpressionism, which involved a spontaneous
use of paints and no preplanning of what the work would look like. Photorealists also tried
to set themselves apart from American Realists. Photorealism art requires meticulous
planning and dedicated replication of the original photograph. Photorealists typically
portray common, everyday objects or scenery and commercial or advertising imagery in
their work, and they express a nostalgic bent. Photorealism art is a spinoff of the Pop Art
movement, which also revolves around commercial life and everyday scenes. Whereas
Pop Artists expressed the absurdity of the images their artwork portrayed, though,
Photorealists sought to exalt the images. John Baeder’s diner paintings, such
as Mozella’s Diner and Scott’s Bridge Diner, and Charles Bell’s Gumballs II are examples
of typical Super-Realism. Photorealist painters normally hand paint or use an airbrush in
their works, which tend to be very large. In order to resemble actual photographs, the
finished work must have a smooth surface free of visible brushwork. Ralph Goings
demonstrates the use of painting and finishing with airbrushing in Airstream(1970), Paul’s
Corner Cushion(1970) and Donut(1995). Artists employ various techniques to achieve
the final look of a photograph. For instance, Audrey Flack used slides of images projected
onto the canvases to be painted, as seen in Crayola(1972 and 1973) and Wheel of
Fortune(1977 and 1978). Artist Chuck Close used a pencil grid for scale and sketched
pictures of his friends with an airbrush. The first of his works were black-and-white pieces,
such as Frank(1969) and Big Self Portrait(1967 and 1968). He began using color in 1970.
Louis K. Meisel coined the term Photorealism in 1969, and it was first printed for the show
Twenty-Two Realists in a Whitney Museum catalogue in 1970. Other less-used terms are
New Realism, Sharp Focus Realism and Hyper Realism. Some argue these are actually
offshoots of the original and that a true Photorealist portrait makes the viewer aware that
it is a paintingand not a photograph. Two years after Meisel named the movement, he
was asked to define it by Stuart M. Speiser. Speiser had accumulated a large collection,
which was later named Photo-Realism 1973: The Stuart M. Speiser Collectionfor a
traveling show. The collection was given to the Smithsonian in 1978, and the Smithsonian
features the collection in several of its museums. According to Meisel’s definition, five
conditions must be met: A photo and a camera are used to gather information. The
information is transferred to a canvas by use of a mechanical or semimechanical means.
Through technical ability, the finished work must appear to be a photograph. The work
must have been exhibited by a Photorealist by 1972. The Photorealist had to devote at
least five years to this type of art.