New Realism

Photo-Realism

Super Realism

New Realism

• New Realism is also known as Super-Realism, Photo-Realism, and Hyper-Realism.

• Artists used commercial art techniques such as the grid, airbrush, photography, or anything that would help produce a realistic image.

• It was based on the pop of the 50's & 60's and astounded the viewer with incredible illusions of reality.

• Artists strive for a synthesis of reality.• Often the look of the finished product is determined by

the source (photo or cast of an actual person).• Artists return to the notion that there is a world worth

looking at and recording on canvas.

New Realism

• Photo-Realism evolved from two longstanding art-historical traditions: trompe l'oeil ("to fool the eye") painting and the meticulous technique and highly finished surfaces of seventeenth-century Dutch painting.

• Painters such as Vermeer greatly influenced Estes with their detailed observation of reality and their use of technical devices, such as the camera obscura.

http://www.abelardomorell.net/camera_obscura1.html

Chuck Close

• Began as Abstract Expressionist

• Begins working with a system: a) grids photo b) Grids canvas to scale c) Paints each square with attention of individual painting

• Process is as important as image

Big Self- Portrait

Chuck ClosePhoto- Realism

1967-68

• Subject is self-portrait but like I.D. photo

• Uses airbrush, impersonal like silk-screen in Pop

• Black & White • Large scale - the subject

is both heroic & exploited• Very objective rendering

of subject - translates photo info into paint info

• Portraits in no way reflect the inner qualities of the subject

• From distance - giant blow-ups of photo's

• Up close - Abstract fields of dots & marks

• Info exposes every detail including the unflattering - pores, hairs, wrinkles, blemishes

• Not idealized

John 1971-72

• Artist’s friend• Reproduces limited

depth of field of the photographic source

• Collapse of vein in 1988 leaves him in near total paralysis (legs, arms, even hands)

• Now paints with brush strapped to wrist in a wheelchair

Roy IIChuck Close

Photo- Realism1994

• Part of a series of fellow artists – this one depicts Roy Lichtenstein

• His new circumstances librated his process.

• Having no fine motor skills forced a new system involving concentric circles of sumptuous colour, and expressive handling of paint.

• Grids are much larger, so the resolving distance increases

Richard Estes

• Master of the urban scene, he paints directly from photo's and slides

• An Estes painting is a composite of several photographic views of the same subject (often up to 75 exposures combined in photomontage.)

• He is not concerned with recreating exact copies of photographs, but rather in manipulating and reconstructing them to create a view that appears more truthful to the eye than reality.

• Scenes of New York City that focus on the built environment rather than the natural one.

Richard Estes

• They are usually obscure locations rather than well-known landmarks.

• Compositions are typically devoid of people and therefore convey a sense of somber isolation without narrative.

• Some content is derived from Pop (commercial signage), but technique and style are more sophisticated.

• The image is built up in layers of acrylic paint. Estes then overpaints the entire canvas in oil, to enhance luminosity and rich saturation of color.

Central Savings, 1975

• The subjects reveal the prominence of commercialism in the urban landscape.

• The camera makes available a vast amount of info, frozen in time.

• The mood is non-judgmental/neutral.

Central Savings, 1975

Central Savings, 1975

• Reflections on glass & chrome animate the scene.• Colours, shadows, & every subtly of perspective is

painstakingly reproduced and enhanced.

Double Self-Portrait, 1976

• Demonstrates his attention to detail, and convincing depiction of reflection.

• Reflections dissolve/fuse the barrier between background & foreground.

• Multiple layers of visual information, alert the viewer to things they have not noticed before.

Double Self-Portrait, 1976

Double Self-Portrait, 1976

• Reflection adds depth• The location is out of context and the open composition is nearly

abstract because of the emphasis on rectilinear shapes.

Duane Hanson

• Work contains tension between artificial & realistic qualities

• Based on direct cast of parts of human figures, then reassembles them cast in polyester resin & fiberglass, with real clothes, wigs, & objects.

• Uses cast in the way Estes uses photos• Figures mix/ blend in to the environment• Subjects are everyday people• Satires, and criticizes social circumstances

Tourists 1970

• Virtual Reality• Subject suggests physical

bloating & Intellectual starvation

• Paradox - detached viewers are subjects of observation

• Social observation of retired tourists in NY

• Bizarre quality - very real, but don't move or breath