The name Photorealism (also known as Hyperrealism or Superrealism) was coined in reference to those artists whose work depended heavily on photographs, which they often projected onto canvas allowing images to be replicated with precision and accuracy. The exactness was often aided further by the use of an airbrush, which was originally designed to retouch photographs. The movement came about within the same period and context as Conceptual art, Pop art, and Minimalism and expressed a strong interest in realism in art, over that of idealism and abstraction. Among several male practitioners of Photorealism there is an interest in themes of machinery and objects of industry such as trucks, motorcycles, cars, and even gumball machines, whereas Audrey Flack, the sole female practitioner, infuses her works with greater emotionality and the transience of life. Ultimately, the Photorealists were successful in attracting a wide audience, but they are often overlooked by art historians as an important avant garde style.
To a degree not previously accomplished, Photorealism complicates the notion of realism by successfully mixing together that which is real with that which is unreal. While the image on the canvas is recognizable and carefully delineated to suggest that it is accurate, the artist often based their work upon photographs rather than direct observation. Therefore, their canvases remain distanced from reality factually and metaphorically.
Many Photorealists adamantly insist that their works, which are laden with such mass and consumer culture icons as trucks, fast food restaurants, and mechanical toys, are not communicative of social criticism or commentary. However, it is hard to deny that these works are recognizably American. At times, the actual work rather than the artist's words is our most useful guide. In this manner, there is the contrast between the reality and primacy of the word or text, over the visual within our society.
Since the advent of photography in the early-19th-century artists have used the camera as a tool in picture making; however, artists would never reveal in paint their dependency on photographs as to do so was seen as "cheating". In contrast, Photorealists acknowledge the modern world's mass production and proliferation of photographs, and they do not deny their dependence on photographs. In fact, several artists attempt to replicate the effects of photography (getting away from the natural vision of our eyes) such as blurriness or multiple-viewpoints, because they favor the aesthetic and look. Therefore, while the resulting image is realistic, it is simultaneously one-stage away from reality by its dependence on the reproduced image. These works question traditional artistic methods, as well as the differences between reality and artificiality.
The representation of light, as well as the interaction of light and color together has concerned artists throughout the ages. By using slide machines to project images onto bare canvas Photorealism for the first time unites color and light together as one element. The capturing of light is most especially evident in the highly reflective surfaces of steel and chrome.
Photorealists, along with some practitioners of Pop art, reintroduced the importance of process and deliberate planning over that of improvisation and automatism, into the making of art, draftsmanship, and exacting brushwork. In other words, the traditional techniques of academic art are again of great significance, and painstaking craftsmanship is prized after decades of the spontaneous, accidental, and improvisational.
"I am as interested in the artificial as I am in the real," Chuck Close said. His photographic approach to painting portraits launched photorealism.
A large, unshaven man with unkempt hair smoking a cigarette constitutes this work's subject matter, which is Close's self-portrait. Through the use of black and white, Close emphasizes his slovenly appearance and highlights the labor that goes into making art, as well as the unglamorous nature of being an artist. In this manner, he turns the long tradition of artists' self-portraiture on its head.
Here, the artist Ralph Goings has selected a rather pedestrian view as his subject - a jeep, McDonald's, and the American flag. Goings paints these icons of the American highways with great attention to detail, aided in large part by using photographs. The artist has chosen to remove such extraneous details as people and detritus that would detract from the canvas's subject matter. In this manner, Goings along with other Photorealists has diversified the traditional artistic genres maintained since the 17th century. He paints such banal subjects with great care so that together with the artist we consider what in fact comprises American culture. In lieu of the great cathedrals of Europe with their vaulted arches, America - he seems to suggest - has these "golden" arches to herald its cultural heritage.
In this painting, we view a run-down, cluttered city filled with reflective signs and storefronts, awash with bold signage and lettering. This unremarkable setting, however, is painted with the utmost care and precision, a testament to Richard Estes' craftsmanship. Estes has stated the pragmatic reason he bases his paintings on photographs: "It's silly to work from drawings when I can do better with photographs." Painted in 1974, the height of Photorealism, works such as this by Estes were acclaimed for their urban aesthetic that reflected New York City as the city was on the threshold of bankruptcy. The artist's work method differs from that of other Photorealists in that he neither uses a grid system, nor a projector to transfer his images onto the canvas. With his great attention to detail and realism, Richard Estes helped to bring the academic tradition of easel painting back into vogue, aspiring to reflect a sense of beauty found in past artistic periods, such as the Flemish art of Jan Van Eyck. Besides his urban subject matter, Estes technical prowess is one of his main contributions to Photorealism.
In the playful Circus Act, Charles Bell depicts two colorful and simple metal toys. He positions the toys as if mid-motion, like a circus procession, expressing wonderment- a quality that is prevalent throughout Bell's work. The painter focuses on small and insignificant objects, making them the subjects of his work, in order to question our culture values, as well as to play with the interplay of high and low culture. With his interest in mass produced, often inexpensively made objects, Bells makes high art of low culture, or here, out of child's play. Remarkably, the artist did not receive any formal artistic training. He is praised for his technical abilities, most notably his ability to create high-glossy surfaces and shiny objects.
Before us is a still-life arrangement that juxtaposes beautiful and sumptuous objects such as the red rose, strand of pearls, and small desserts, with an iconic photograph of the Holocaust. Audrey Flack addresses the Jewish Holocaust, memory, and the fragility of life appropriating Margaret Bourke-White's iconic black and white photograph taken at the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1945, which she surrounds with such traditional emblems of loss and the passage of time as a watch, a rose, a butterfly, and a burning candle (perhaps a memorial or yahrzeit candle). Flack states that the red candle which drips wax reminiscent of blood is "a memorial to bridge time between 1945 and the present, to burn always in the present." In addition, she includes such specific Jewish objects as a six-pointed Jewish star from her own keychain, as well as texts related to Jewish culture and religion. These objects and symbols communicate traditional art historical idea about the transience of life (pieces of fruit going bad) and of beauty that will fade. Flack utilizes modern technology and work methods in service of centuries-old artistic concerns and subject matter, making momento-mori (Latin: Remember you, too, will die) for our era. Vanitas speaks of contrasts, that of death as well as life with its elements of beauty. Towards the borders of the work Flack has painted traces of a rainbow, the sign given to Noah that the world would survive. Ultimately, survival - as the men in the photograph had survived the death camps - is the work's summarizing message.
Before us, is an up-close image of professional football players in mid-action. There are no hidden messages in British artist's work that tended to depict subjects that have a larger than life quality. Morley brings a sensationalist attitude to Photorealism. This trait also endows his paintings with a form of expressionism to Morley's paintings, which have a comic book like quality without the cartoonish effects of some Pop art works, like those of Roy Lichtenstein (a predecessor whom Morley admires greatly). Morley succeeds at evoking tension and the anticipation of pain, and the image itself is a snapshot of rapid motion, which is quite unusual among Photorealist works. Incidentally, Morley has stated his preference for the moniker of Superrealism, rather than Photorealism.
A gray-haired man slumbers in public on a park bench during daytime that seems somewhat inappropriate. Peterson's exacting drawing and painting enables him to paint literal interpretations of high-resolution photographs, achieving an even greater verisimilitude than others - his images are sharper, more literal interpretations. This is in part due to his use of more sophisticated imaging tools than was available at the beginnings of Photorealism. He sought such heightened believability in order to further push social issues into the art world, similar to sculptor Duane Hanson. Peterson titled his work after the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes the Cynic who made a virtue of poverty and begged for a living. Anointing the sleeping, somewhat disheveled figure with the same name of the philosopher both ennobles the man and interjects a note of irony. Diogenes II is a typical Peterson work in that it juxtaposes scenes of poverty with everyday city life. Peterson is known for his fine draftsmanship and is technically more advanced than prior Photorealists. His techniques and effects illustrate that Photorealism, while based in the 1970s, continues on and that new technological advancements offers both challenges and opportunities to the artists.