Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution
photograph. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of Photorealism by the
methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures. The term is
primarily applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United
States and Europe that has developed since the early 2000s.
History Belgian art dealer Isy Brachot coined
the French word Hyperréalisme, meaning Hyperrealism, as the title of a major
exhibition and catalogue at his gallery in Brussels in 1973. The exhibition was
dominated by such American Photorealists as Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, Don Eddy,
Robert Bechtle and Richard McLean; but it included such influential European
artists as Gnoli, Richter, Klapheck and Delcol. Since then, Hyperealisme has
been used by European artists and dealers to apply to painters influenced
by the Photorealists. Early 21st century Hyperrealism was
founded on the aesthetic principles of Photorealism. American painter Denis
Peterson, whose pioneering works are universally viewed as an offshoot of
Photorealism, first used "Hyperrealism" to apply to the new movement and its
splinter group of artists. Graham Thompson wrote "One demonstration of the
way photography became assimilated into the art world is the success of
photorealist painting in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is also called
super-realism or hyper-realism and painters like Richard Estes, Denis
Peterson, Audrey Flack, and Chuck Close often worked from photographic stills to
create paintings that appeared to be photographs."
However, Hyperrealism is contrasted with the literal approach found in
traditional photorealist paintings of the late 20th century. Hyperrealist
painters and sculptors use photographic images as a reference source from which
to create a more definitive and detailed rendering, one that often, unlike
Photorealism, is narrative and emotive in its depictions. Strict Photorealist
painters tended to imitate photographic images, omitting or abstracting certain
finite detail to maintain a consistent over-all pictorial design. They often
omitted human emotion, political value, and narrative elements. Since it evolved
from Pop Art, the photorealistic style of painting was uniquely tight, precise,
and sharply mechanical with an emphasis on mundane, everyday imagery.
Hyperrealism, although photographic in essence, often entails a softer, much
more complex focus on the subject depicted, presenting it as a living,
tangible object. These objects and scenes in Hyperrealism paintings and
sculptures are meticulously detailed to create the illusion of a reality not
seen in the original photo. That is not to say they're surreal, as the illusion
is a convincing depiction of reality. Textures, surfaces, lighting effects,
and shadows appear clearer and more distinct than the reference photo or
even the actual subject itself. Hyperrealism has its roots in the
philosophy of Jean Baudrillard, ”the simulation of something which never
really existed.” As such, Hyperrealists create a false reality, a convincing
illusion based on a simulation of reality, the digital photograph.
Hyperreal paintings and sculptures are an outgrowth of extremely
high-resolution images produced by digital cameras and displayed on
computers. As Photorealism emulated analog photography, Hyperrealism uses
digital imagery and expands on it to create a new sense of reality.
Hyperrealistic paintings and sculptures confront the viewer with the illusion of
manipulated high-resolution images, though more meticulous.
Style and methods The Hyperrealist style focuses much more
of its emphasis on details and the subjects. Hyperreal paintings and
sculptures are not strict interpretations of photographs, nor are
they literal illustrations of a particular scene or subject. Instead,
they utilize additional, often subtle, pictorial elements to create the
illusion of a reality which in fact either does not exist or cannot be seen
by the human eye. Furthermore, they may incorporate emotional, social, cultural
and political thematic elements as an extension of the painted visual
illusion; a distinct departure from the older and considerably more literal
school of Photorealism. Hyperrealist painters and sculptors make
allowances for some mechanical means of transferring images to the canvas or
mold, including preliminary drawings or grisaille underpaintings and molds.
Photographic slide projections or multi media projectors are used to project
images onto canvases and rudimentary techniques such as gridding may also be
used to ensure accuracy. Sculptures utilize polyesters applied directly onto
the human body or mold. Hyperrealism requires a high level of technical
prowess and virtuosity to simulate a false reality. As such, Hyperrealism
incorporates and often capitalizes upon photographic limitations such as depth
of field, perspective and range of focus. Anomalies found in digital
images, such as fractalization, are also exploited to emphasize their digital
origins by some Hyperrealist painters, such as Chuck Close, Denis Peterson,
Bert Monroy and Robert Bechtle. Themes
Subject matter ranges from portraits, figurative art, still life, landscapes,
cityscapes and narrative scenes. The more recent hyperrealist style is much
more literal than Photorealism as to exact pictorial detail with an emphasis
on social, cultural or political themes. This also is in stark contrast to the
newer concurrent Photorealism with its continued avoidance of photographic
anomalies. Hyperrealist painters at once simulate and improve upon precise
photographic images to produce optically convincing visual illusions of reality,
often in a social or cultural context. Some hyperrealists have exposed
totalitarian regimes and third world military governments through their
narrative depictions of the legacy of hatred and intolerance. Denis Peterson
and Gottfried Helnwein depicted political and cultural deviations of
societal decadence in their work. Peterson's work focused on diasporas,
genocides and refugees. Helnwein developed unconventionally narrative
work that centered around past, present and future deviations of the Holocaust.
Provocative subjects include enigmatic imagery of genocides, their tragic
aftermath and the ideological consequences. Thematically, these
controversial hyperreal artists aggressively confronted the corrupted
human condition through narrative paintings as a phenomenological medium.
These lifelike paintings are an historical commentary on the grotesque
mistreatment of human beings. Hyperreal paintings and sculptures
further create a tangible solidity and physical presence through subtle
lighting and shading effects. Shapes, forms and areas closest to the forefront
of the image visually appear beyond the frontal plane of the canvas; and in the
case of sculptures, details have more clarity than in nature. Hyperrealistic
images are typically 10 to 20 times the size of the original photographic
reference source, yet retain an extremely high resolution in color,
precision and detail. Many of the paintings are achieved with an airbrush,
using acrylics, oils or a combination of both. Ron Mueck’s lifelike sculptures
are scaled much larger or smaller than life and finished in incredibly
convincing detail through the meticulous use of polyester resins and multiple
molds. Bert Monroy’s digital images appear to be actual paintings taken from
photographs, yet they are fully created on computers.
Hyperrealists References
Notes External links
agonistica.com