Photorealism, also known as hyperrealism or superrealism, is a painting style that replicates photography images on canvas. An artist takes a copy of a photograph, postcard, film sequence, or some such media and reproduces it on canvas with precision and accuracy. The image in the painting is recognizable. It is carefully delineated to show natural objects in their natural shape and size rather than giving in to imagination.
Chuck Close (Self Portrait)
Method of painting
The exactness of the image is executed by the use of an airbrush (airbrushes are also used to retouch photographs). With the help of projectors, the image appears on canvas which gives the artist the way to be as precise as possible to the original photograph. It is like drawing from a stencil.
Photorealism reintroduced the emphasis on process and deliberate planning into the making of art, draftsmanship, and exacting brushwork. It gives great value to traditional techniques of academic art and painstaking craftsmanship over automation, improvisation, and accidental art.
Technological advancement (improved cameras and digital equipment) has given more tools to photorealists for better precision than what was thought possible with paintings. Some artists like Bill Fink have developed their own techniques for creating photorealistic images using soil, pollen, human hair, and cremated human remains.
Davis Cone's Fremont—California Dusk (2005)
Themes in photorealism
The artwork is based on photographs rather than direct observation. Thus it is removed from reality in both factual and metaphorical ways. The artists inspired by pop art lade their artworks with images of food trucks, amusement parks, movie posters, mechanical toys, etc. These paintings are from the American art movement.
Photorealists routinely portrayed commonplace and mundane subjects such as landscapes (mostly urban and metropolitan rather than nature), portraits, still life, political, and journalistic images.
Don Jacot's Racing Men (2009)
Accusations of "cheating"
Since the invention of cameras in the 19th century, artists have depended heavily on photographs in picture-making. But it was considered taboo in the artistic community to reveal that they have used photos as to do so was seen as “cheating” or imitation. With the emergence of the photorealism movement, artists no more deny their dependence on photos. They even use the effects of photography in painting that are missed by the human eye such as perspectives, blurriness, multiple viewpoints, panorama, shades, tints, etc. The artwork is thus realistic and challenges artificiality.
Elizabeth Patterson
Famous artists and artworks
Some notable American photorealists are Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, Charles Bell, and Audrey Flack among others.
But photorealism is no longer only an American movement. Starting in the 1980s with Franz Gertsch several European artists like Clive Head, Raphaella Spence, Bertrand Meniel, and Roberto Bernardi are associated with photorealism that has emerged since the mid-1990s. This internationalization of photorealism has led to photorealist events, such as The Prague Project, in which American and non-American photorealist painters have traveled together to locations including Prague, Zurich, Monaco, and New York, to work alongside each other in producing work.
Duane Hanson and John DeAndrea are contemporary artists who painted lifelike sculptures of average people, complete with natural-looking hair and real clothes.
