Guide to Photorealism: 8 Photorealist Artists and Artworks

Photorealism, also known as new realism or verism, is a form of contemporary art that uses a photograph to create a highly realistic reproduction of the image in another medium (typically painting, drawing, and other graphic media methods). Through their extraordinarily detailed renditions of everyday objects and people—still lifes, landscapes, street scenes, self-portraits—the photorealists reminded the fine art world that painting and other media could create stunning, lifelike images on par with photography. Artists such as Chuck Close, Tom Blackwell, and John Baeder are among the most celebrated figures in photorealism.

Photorealistic artists use painting, drawing, and other forms of art, like sculpture, to reproduce detailed and precise reproductions of their subject matter from photographs. The image is developed, often as a photographic slide, and transferred onto canvases, often with a projector or grid system. Artists then depict the objects with exacting detail, applying oil or acrylic paint with an airbrush or paintbrush with as few brush strokes as possible to preserve a photograph’s look. Photorealist painters often create these images on a large-scale canvas, which requires exceptional attention to detail and technical ability.

The photorealist movement sought to show the art world that paintings and other media forms could recreate images with the same degree of fine detail and craft as a photograph. Here is a brief historical overview of the movement:

• Beginnings. The photorealist art movement began in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a reaction to the surrealism of abstract expressionism and the pared-down imagery of minimalism. Both had surpassed portrait and scenic art as the most prominent American art movements; at the same time, photography had become the most popular and accepted means of reproducing an image. Photorealism first appeared in print in a catalog for an exhibit at the Whitney Museum in 1970.
• Meisel defines photorealism. The term “photorealism” was coined by Louis K. Meisel, an author and art dealer. He developed five criteria for paintings and other art forms to be considered photorealistic, which included using a camera or photograph to create an image; a mechanical method of transferring the image to a canvas; and the technical ability to produce a photorealistic painting or other work that appeared photographic.
• Pop artists and photorealists unite. A shared reaction toward the dominance of other movements linked the photorealists to artists in the pop art movement, who also shared their interest in mundane subject matter. Artists in both movements focused on commercial imagery, like advertisements, but differed in how these images were presented. Pop art tended to poke fun at such images, while photorealism sought to validate it as an artistic subject.

Though “hyperrealism” is occasionally applied to photorealistic works, the two styles have a couple of key differences:

• Photorealism focuses on replication. Though both use photographs as the template for their images, photorealists aim to reproduce the image down to the smallest and most precise detail. The ultimate goal of photorealism is to create a painting that can pass as a photograph.
• Hyperrealism may feature other details. Hyperrealism takes image reproduction to greater lengths, adding or creating elements that are not in the photograph or part of its subject matter. Hyperrealism also adds details that can be viewed as commenting on the image’s social or political qualities.
  

Many important and celebrated artists and artwork have emerged from the photorealism movement since its early days in the late 1960s. These include:

1. 1. Audrey Flack: After studying at Yale University and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, Flack became a founding figure in photorealism. She was among the first to use photographs to create her paintings, which often include historical elements and female subjects.
2. 2. Chuck Close: Close uses various materials to create his large-scale self-portraits, from acrylics to ink, pastel, watercolor, figure paint, and even paper collage and tapestries. Close lives with prosopagnosia, which is an inability to remember faces, and credits his art with helping him to contend with that condition.
3. 3. Richard Estes: Another founding figure in the photorealist movement, Estes’s paintings reproduced even the most minute details of his photographs: signs and window displays appeared in reverse because of the reflection. His images of windows and storefronts include the reflections in the glass.
4. 4. Ralph Goings: After dabbling in abstract art, Goings’s precise recreations of banks and vehicles helped cement the use of photographs as a key element of the photorealism movement.
5. 5. Robert Bechtle: One of the earliest artists to work in photorealism, Bechtle drew on his friends and families and the street scenes in his native San Francisco for his work, which was noted for its extremely delicate brushwork.
6. 6. Don Eddy: Though his early photorealism efforts focused on cityscapes, Eddy later found inspiration in common objects like glassware or toys reflected on glass shelves, which helped him form connections and structure within their composition.
7. 7. Malcolm Morley: Morley was an abstract expressionist before finding his way to photorealism, like many of his contemporaries. He also stood apart in the photorealism movement by using printed images like postcards for his source material.
8. 8. John Salt: Images of contemporary photographs influenced salt’s shift from abstract expressionism and pop art to photorealism. After initially using advertising images of cars for his subjects, he discovered a scrapyard and began photographing the wrecked cars that often served as his subjects.

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