A virtuous, almost photographic representation of the subject, without expression of personal emotions, elaborated with clinical precision down to the smallest detail, showing an almost cold objectivity, this is how the Hyperrealism in contemporary art.
Hyperrealism
Hyperrealism consists of the reproduction of an image in such a realistic way that the viewer comes to wonder if the work done is a painting or a photograph. Widely influenced by the Pop Art movement, hyperrealism is often a critique of consumer society. The paintings and sculptures of this period often depict scenes of everyday life, portraits. If it uses popular symbols, the hyperrealist movement is opposed to Pop Art in that it is much less abstract art: much more figurative.
The techniques used by the artists of the movement are diverse but they all have their origin around a photograph as a model. In order to reproduce reality identically, painters sometimes project the image onto the canvas using an overhead projector and thus draw the image down to the finest detail. Other techniques consist of painting directly on the printed photograph in very large format or framing the photograph to reproduce the work frame by frame (quadrature technique).
Each time, the artist's goal is to show neutral and raw reality, to turn it into a simple object. Unlike photo-realism, the motif is usually not embellished and no details are left out. As in the photographic model, the painter tries to integrate elements of perspective such as depth of field or focus in his work. Creating hyper-realistic work requires a lot of practice, skill, and patience.
The main features of hyperrealism include the following nuances: Using photographic equipment to create and transfer the original image to the canvas. A variety of materials used for the manufacture of sculptures. Significant sizes of paintings. Wide application of airbrushing and glazing techniques when painting pictures. High resolution images with a careful representation of every detail of the object.
Hyperrealist artists most often work in the portrait, landscape, or still life genre. In addition, among them there are also authors who prefer to create works of art on sharp social and political issues. For skillful artistic imitation of color and black-and-white photos, masters of painting and graphics use a variety of techniques and tools: simple pencils and pastels; blood and charcoal; oil and acrylic paints; pens and sprays.
The imitation of photography in the paintings of the hyperrealists is emphasized by the corresponding compositional techniques borrowed from the mass media: cinema, advertising, photography. These include close-up, image fragmentation, increased detail, macro focus, frame-by-frame image layout, and other techniques.
Regarding its ideological content, hyperrealism is closer to pop art than to realistic and academic art, since it shows only the external characteristics of objects, without claiming the depth of the idea or the interpretation of the author's intention. The illusory exact copy of objects of reality in hyperrealism is an end in itself, therefore, artists of this direction often use photography as the basis of their work, which complicates the determination of the authorship of a painting made in This line.
Hyperrealism as a direction is opposed to conceptualism, as form and content (which, by the way, is in unity in the art of a realist orientation). The emphasized mechanical transmission of relationships and textures visible to the naked eye is compounded by the specificity of the plots: idols of pop culture, frozen like mannequins, the figures and faces of the characters are rendered with careful rendering and reach the status of kitsch. (a combination of internal ideological and intellectual emptiness with an external appearance of commercial beauty).
A characteristic feature of hyperrealistic art is the absence of the author's emotions and the manifestation of the artistic style and way of drawing. For this purpose, artists use an airbrush, glaze, and other means to smooth the surface.
History
In the United States in the 1960s, especially in California and New York, a style direction emerged in modern art that opposed the principles of abstract art, informal art, and tachyism with a new figurative realism. It was based on the accuracy of the photographic representation of reality, without any subjective emotion, portrayed with clinical precision down to the smallest detail, thus showing the coldest objectivity, hyperrealism arises.
The history of hyperrealism, as well as its related photorealism, is little more than half a century old, dating back to the late 1960s. The new styles appeared largely due to the significant improvement in the technical capabilities of photographic equipment in those days. years. Cameras with high resolution appeared on the market, which were ideal for creating high-quality images. This was the impetus for the creation of paintings from photographs using artistic techniques and tools.
Hyperrealism is the term used to refer to the style of artists who produce paintings or sculptures that resemble a high-resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is considered a branch of photorealism, due to the similar methods used to create hyperrealistic paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an independent art movement and style that has developed since the early 2000s in the United States and Europe.
The French word hyperréalisme comes from the Belgian art dealer Isy Brachot, who used it as the title of a major exhibition at his Brussels gallery in 1973. This exhibition was spearheaded by such American photorealists as Ralph Goings, Don Eddy, Chuck Close and Richard McLean, but there were also other important European artists such as Gnoli, Klapheck, Richter and Delcol. Since then, the term hyperrealism has been used by artists and dealers to refer to painters influenced by photorealists.
Attempts to make the protagonists as realistic as possible can already be seen in ancient times. The overemphasis on reality means that works created in this way seem a bit menacing. In the field of plastic design, attempts were made many hundreds of years ago to form terrifying figures of gods, which appear almost lifelike through the choice of material and realistic painting. This idea of artistic creation was taken up again at the end of the XNUMXth century.
One of the most successful creators of this genre was Wilhelm von Rumann, who caused a special stir with his figure of the "Roman water carrier". Rumann, born in Hannover in 1850, died in Corsica in 1906, was a son of the Munich school. The sculptor created sculptures in clay and terracotta, but also in colored bronze that he made seem real by means of expressive painting. A renewed revival of this art style took place in America in the late XNUMXs.
Artists such as Malcolm Morley, Duane Hanson, and John de Andrea created figures from wax and similar materials that they designed with such precision that they could be mistaken for living people. Realistic images of homeless people, for example, produced amazing effects. Visitors to the artist's exhibitions were frightened by the sometimes terrifying reality. In 1969, Nancy Graves displayed three life-size camels at the Whitney Museum, rendered so realistically they could be mistaken for the real thing.
The works of the hyperrealists aroused great interest among critics and the public, but over the next 10 years, the mass enthusiasm for ultramodern art gradually passed. The second wave of interest in hyperrealism was fueled by the advent of widely available digital photography in the early XNUMXst century. Compared to analog technologies, the resolution of still images has improved significantly.
Artists finally have a great opportunity to take high-quality photos and use them as the basis for their paintings and drawings. Hyperrealism is an important part of contemporary visual art today. Exhibitions of works by artists of this style invariably attract large crowds of spectators, and the best works are gladly bought by patrons from different countries.
Photorealism and Hyperrealism
You are an expert if you are able to distinguish Photorealism and Hyperrealism. Photorealists' artworks resemble technically advanced high-resolution photographs. Hyper-realistic artworks are more mysterious. The dominant subject in photorealism is a landscape or portrait, while hyperrealism focuses primarily on detail.
So when a photorealist renders a park in its entirety, a hyperrealist would hide a bench in shadow by emphasizing a ray of sunlight. If a photorealist paints a portrait in general, a hyperrealist would highlight a particular feature of a face. Hyperrealism was initially close to pop art, but later became an independent movement that also influenced numerous European artists.
Photorealism is another new chapter in the history of painting added to reality. In itself, the use of images in painting is not new, it was already practiced in the XNUMXth century. But following the photo so closely meant a new step. It's amazing to see how style and expression can differ so much even though all of these artists work from photographs.
Hyperrealism, in contrast to photorealism close in spirit, has a clearly noticeable emotional component. Working on a painting, drawing or sculpture, the author creates an extremely realistic artistic illusion of an object with flawless surface texture, shadow play and lighting effects. This style is the opposite of conceptualism, in which the author's idea is considered much more important than the form of his artistic expression.
Photorealism is the founder of postmodernism trends in modern culture. Thanks to the return to figurativity (the image of specific objects), trends have emerged in contemporary art such as: actionism, anachronism, underground, video art, graffiti and others.
Photorealism always starts with photos and hyperrealism doesn't have to. A highly realistic still life can be hyper-realistic if it has simply been placed in a studio and painted. If there is a very realistic sculpture (with hair and painted all over) it makes more sense if it is called hyperrealism than photorealism, because a flat image is much closer to a photo than a three-dimensional image. So photorealism is actually photorealism, but hyperrealism doesn't have to be photorealism.
Famous Masters of Hyperrealism
Among the prominent representatives of this style, there are many interesting creative personalities who live in different parts of the world. Some of the most famous masters of hyperrealism include:
Ron Mueck is Australia's most famous contemporary hyper-realistic sculptor. He easily creates both small compositions and huge monumental works of art.
Gottfried Helnwein is an Irish artist of Austrian origin who has gained worldwide recognition for his active social position and the acute social orientation of his work. In his work, Helnwein often refers to the theme of the Holocaust.
Bernard Torrens is a Spanish painter known for his magnificent portraits of men and women isolated from their natural habitat. The ideal for the artist was and will always be his great compatriot Diego Velázquez
Jason deGraaf When you see his work for the first time, you will find it hard to believe that it is painting. His hyper-realistic worlds are carefully crafted illusions created with soft brush strokes to give the impression of high-resolution photographs.
Marco Grassi Another author in the style of hyperrealism, whose works are striking in their realism and cause many to take a closer look, is an Italian artist from Milan. His paintings are so detailed that they truly have the quality of photographs.
Emanuele Dascanius He is one of the best contemporary artists, a true master of the hyper-realistic style, whose works stand out for their sensuality and realism.
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