Photorealism

Photorealism is a style of painting and drawing that emerged in the United States and Europe in the late 1960s, based on the meticulous, almost photographically exact rendering of an image, usually taken from an existing photograph. Artists projected photographs onto canvas or transferred them by grid, achieving an impersonal, smooth surface free of emotive brushwork. Leading practitioners include Chuck Close with his monumental portraits, Richard Estes with his glittering urban storefronts, Audrey Flack, and Ralph Goings. Photorealism arose as a reaction against the subjectivity of Abstract Expressionism and at the same time as a reflection on the age of mass photography and advertising. It raises questions about the nature of seeing, of copy and original, and about the line between mechanical reproduction and handcraft. The style influenced hyperrealist sculpture and remains relevant in contemporary painting, including among Ukrainian realists.