Photorealism
Art movement reproducing photographs with meticulous realism.
Photorealism is a genre of art encompassing painting, drawing, and other graphic media in which an artist studies a photograph and attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. The term also refers to a specific art movement of American painters that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s, evolving from Pop Art and as a counter to Abstract Expressionism and Minimalist art movements.
- field
- Painting, drawing, graphic media, sculpture
- nationality
- Primarily American, with later international practitioners
- known_for
- Reproducing photographs with high realism, often using mechanical transfer methods
- also_labeled
- Super-Realism, New Realism, Sharp Focus Realism, hyperrealism
Lore & Background
Photorealism evolved from Pop Art and as a counter to Abstract Expressionism and Minimalist art movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States. Photorealists use a photograph or several photographs to gather information for their paintings, and the use of a camera and photographs can be argued as an acceptance of Modernism. However, artists' admission of their use of photographs was met with intense criticism when the movement began to gain momentum in the late 1960s, despite visual devices having been used since the fifteenth century to aid artists.
Reader's Guide
Photorealism emerged as a reaction to the overwhelming abundance of photographic media by the mid-20th century, which threatened to lessen the value of imagery in art. While Pop artists pointed out the absurdity of much imagery, Photorealists sought to reclaim and exalt the value of an image. The movement's significance lies in its technical precision and its challenge to the dominance of abstraction, though it was often wrongly compared to trompe-l'œil. The first generation of American Photorealists included Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, and others, who tackled mundane subjects in traditional genres. The movement has since internationalized, with European artists emerging from the mid-1990s onward.
Did You Know?
- Photorealism is sometimes labeled as Super-Realism, New Realism, Sharp Focus Realism, or hyperrealism.
- The association of photorealism with trompe-l'œil is a wrongly attributed comparison made by many critics of the 1970s and 1980s.
- Duane Hanson and John DeAndrea are sculptors associated with photorealism for their lifelike sculptures, called Verists.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Photorealism?
Photorealism is an art genre in which an artist studies a photograph and then recreates that image with extreme fidelity in a different medium such as paint, ink, or sculpture. As a named movement, it emerged in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, growing out of Pop Art and deliberately positioning itself against Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism.
How do Photorealists actually build their images?
Artists typically start from a photograph and use projection or other mechanical transfer techniques to lay down an accurate compositional base before layering paint or ink to match the source's detail. The goal is a finished piece—whether a painting, drawing, or sculpture—that reads as sharp and precise as the original photo.
How is Photorealism different from Hyperrealism?
Although the two labels are sometimes used interchangeably, Photorealism specifically names the late-1960s-to-1970s American movement focused on faithfully reproducing a photographic image. Hyperrealism, which developed afterward, often pushes past what the camera captured, adding details that exceed the source photograph's fidelity.
Why does Photorealism matter in the broader story of art?
It challenged the postwar assumption that abstraction was the only serious contemporary direction by proving that meticulous, photo-based representation could still be a vital artistic pursuit. The movement also broadened the field beyond painting into drawing and sculpture and eventually spread well past its American origins to international practitioners.
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