Photorealism Text 1419284647
Photorealism Text 1419284647
Photorealism Text 1419284647
Charles Bell (American, 1935 1995), Cats Eye and the Best of Em, 1993, oil on
canvas, The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Collection.
What is Photorealism?
Reflective surfaces of chrome and glass; nostalgic views of diners and theaters;
cityscapes of streets and storefronts; still lives of flowers and produce; and
detailed portraits are some of the many subjects of the artists known as
Photorealists. Beginning in the late 1960s, this genres first practitioners were
primarily Americans who depicted the complexities and banalities of mid-century
American life. In subsequent decades the artists and the subject matter have
become more global.
The term Photorealism, was coined by gallerist Louis Meisel in 1969. Photo
indicating that photography is the visual source material, and realism to
indicate that the finished works are precise and representational. Photographs
whether informal snapshots, composite images, or high-resolution digital
renderings-are transferred to the painting surface through a variety of methods.
Projection, a grid system, and recently, computer-generated models are tools that
artists use to transfer the image. Compositions are painstakingly executed with
brushes (or airguns) and paint. Completed works have highly finished surfaces,
extreme detail, visual distortion and often an altered sense of scale that produces
a new visual reality, related and yet distinct from the photographic sources.
Photorealism poses questions about representation, asking how the world we see
is different from a photograph and how technology informs painting.
Who are the Photorealists?
First generation artists | Chuck Close, Charles Bell, Richard Estes, Robert
Bechtle, Audrey Flack, Don Eddy, Richard McLean, Ralph Goings, and sculptor
John DeAndrea
Second generation | Ben Johnson, Don Jacot, Robert Cottingham, Davis Cone,
Bernardo Torrens
Third generation | Tjalf Sparnaay, Raphaella Spence, Hyung Jin Park, Anthony
Brunelli
Themes of Photorealists
Estes explores the interplay of transparency and reflection in many of his works,
which typically feature vistas down long boulevards. The layered reflections of
architecture, shop windows and the objects behind the glass require the view to
consciously dissect his paintings. Citarella Fish Company takes as its subject the
storefront of a well-known New York City gourmet market.
Chuck Close (American, born 1940), Self Portrait, 2000,
screenprint, The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Collection.
The human figure has been an important subject for certain photorealists. In the
late 1960s Chuck Close began his well-known series of heads, or portraits of
faces, including his own and those of his friends. Close superimposed a grid
system onto his photographs, using this as the basis for his enlarged portraits.
Over the decades he has worked in a variety of media, including airbrushed paint,
aquatint, watercolor, and later, jacquard tapestry.
The Happy Hour Theater, at Magazine and St. Andrews Streets in New Orleans
operated from 1910-1983. The traditional movie house, often with an Art Deco
facade, or as seen here, a large marqueeare Cone's favored subjects. In this
work, the artist's signature appears as an emblem on the fender of the blue
pickup truck in the foreground.
John Baeder (American, born 1938), Johns Diner, 2007, oil on canvas, The Sydney and
Walda Besthoff Collection.
Throughout his career, John Baeder has created portraits of the American
diners that were once common to every American city. These typically
prefabricated buildings on the highways and byways of the United States,
represent a association with the past that Baeder confirms. I want to preserve
diners. I love them, and I express this passion the best way I know, by painting
them. The Lease sign in the building nearby alludes to the fading vitality of
this commercial area. Indeed, beginning in the 1970s, American diners began to
lose popularity, replaced by fast-food chains.
Tom Blackwell (American, born 1938), Bonds Corner Spring, 1975, The Sydney
and Walda Besthoff Collection.
Both Photorealism and Pop Art emerged out of the 1960s and shared a common
interest in depicting objects and scenes found in everyday life. Whereas Pop
artists such as Andy Warhol approached elements of pop culture like Campbells
soup cans and movie stars as icons of advertising and celebrity status,
Photorealism instead focused on the visual and formal aspects of American
commercial objects. Reflective shop windows, storefront displays of items for
purchase, attractive business signs, and the glistening, chrome surfaces of cars,
trains, and motorcycles were popular subjects for depicting rich colors, and a
layering of images as seen through mirrored surfaces or glass. Often these
paintings are derived from not one, but a number of photographs.
Johnson captures spaces that are empty of a human presence. In the 1990s, he
explored museum spaces and the display of art. The uninhabited spaces,
however, cause the viewer to question the scale of the building, implying vast
spaces.
Charles Bell photographed old tin toys, pinball machines and other playthings,
dramatically enlarging them before projecting them onto canvas, using oils to
capture the bright colors, reflective surfaces and construction details of his
subjects. The radical magnification of these lighthearted objects can be
unexpectedly unsettling.
Bell often works in series and the Besthoff Collection includes works from three
different subjects marbles, pinball machines, and small toys. The artist
considers painting these objects as a means of deeply exploring them. Choosing
subjects is definitely an emotional process rather than an intellectual
exerciseBy radically changing the size of everyday objects we can get into them
and more easily explore their surfaces and construction their reality. Cats Eye
and the Best of Em (illustrated page 1) can be considered a formal study in color,
reflection, line and shape, yet there is also an element of nostalgia that informs
the selection of subject matter.