Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...

. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of

photorealism Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...

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 1970s.

Carole Feuerman Carole A. Feuerman (born 1945) is an American sculptor and artist working in hyperrealism. Feuerman utilizes a variety of media including resin, marble, and bronze. She has been included in exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution's National ...

is the forerunner in the hyperrealism movement along with

Duane Hanson Duane Hanson (January 17, 1925 – January 6, 1996) was an American artist and sculptor born in Minnesota. He spent most of his career in South Florida. He was known for his life-sized realistic sculptures of people. He cast the works based o ...

and

John De Andrea John De Andrea (born November 24, 1941) is an American sculptor known for his realistic sculptures of human figures, dressed or nude and in true-to-life postures. Life De Andrea was born in Denver, Colorado, on November 24, 1941. He received ...

History

The art dealer Isy Brachot coined the French word ''hyperréalisme'', meaning

hyperrealism Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

, 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 Ralph Goings (May 9, 1928 – September 4, 2016) was an American painter closely associated with the Photorealism movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was best known for his highly detailed paintings of hamburger stands, pick-up trucks ...

Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...

Don Eddy Don Eddy (born 1944) is a contemporary representational painter.Martin, Alvin. "Spaces of the Mind: New paintings by Don Eddy," ''Arts'', February 1987, p. 22–3.Baker, Kenneth"Don Eddy,"''Artforum'', March 1972. Retrieved March 4, 2021. He ga ...

, Robert Bechtle and Richard McLean; but it included such influential European artists as Domenico Gnoli,

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...

Konrad Klapheck Konrad Klapheck (born February 10, 1935) is a German painter and graphic artist whose style of painting combines features of Surrealism and Pop art. He was born in Düsseldorf. From 1954 to 1956 he studied painting under Bruno Goller at the Kun ...

, and . Since then, ''hyperealisme'' has been used by European artists and dealers to apply to painters influenced by the photorealists. Among contemporary European hyperrealist painters we find Gottfried Helnwein,

Willem van Veldhuizen Willem van Veldhuizen (born January 13, 1954 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) is a Dutch painter, known for his photorealism and hyperrealism paintings of his museum interiors. Life and work Willem van Veldhuizen was born in Rotterdam, the Netherla ...

and

Tjalf Sparnaay Tjalf Sparnaay (born 1954, Haarlem, Netherlands) is a Dutch artist, photographer, illustrator and painter. Early life Born in Haarlem, Tjalf lived with his parents for much of his younger years. Sparnaay was educated to become a sports teacher an ...

, Roger Wittevrongel, as well as the French Pierre Barraya, Jacques Bodin, Ronald Bowen, François Bricq, Gérard Schlosser, Jacques Monory, Bernard Rancillac, Gilles Aillaud and Gérard Fromanger. Early 21st century hyperrealism was founded on the aesthetic principles of photorealism. American painter

Denis Peterson Denis Peterson (born New York, 1944) is an American hyperrealist painter whose photorealist works have been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Butler Institute of American Art, Tate Modern, Springville Museum of Art ...

, whose pioneering works are universally viewed as an offshoot of photorealism, first usedThompson, Graham, ''American Culture in the 1980s'', Edinburgh University Press, 2007, pp. 77–79. "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,

Audrey Flack Audrey L. Flack (born May 30, 1931) is an American artist. Her work pioneered the art genre of photorealism and encompasses painting, sculpture, and photography. Flack has numerous academic degrees, including both a graduate and an honorary doct ...

, and

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 Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor ...

, as the illusion is a convincing depiction of (simulated) 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 Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

, "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 Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is s ...

. 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 use 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

, 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 Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

regimes and third world military governments through their narrative depictions of the legacy of hatred and intolerance.

and Gottfried Helnwein depicted political and cultural deviations of societal decadence in their work. Peterson's work focused on

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

s, genocides and

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

. Helnwein developed unconventionally narrative work that centered on past, present and future deviations of the

holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. 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

Alison Van Pelt Alison Van Pelt (born September 16, 1963, Los Angeles) is an American painter. Trained in Los Angeles and Florence, Van Pelt is established as a contemporary artist whose work is informed by expressionism, minimalism and pop art. Biography Van ...

* Andreas Orosz * Antonio López * Anthony Brunelli * Arinze Stanley Egbe *

Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto (born 20 January 1964) is a Spanish Hyperrealism (visual arts), hyperrealist painter who specialises in historical military paintings that portray different eras of the Spanish Armed Forces through hyperrealistic nat ...

* Ben Johnson * Ben Schonzeit * Bert Monroy *

Bertrand Meniel Bertrand may refer to: Places * Bertrand, Missouri, US * Bertrand, Nebraska, US * Bertrand, New Brunswick, Canada * Bertrand Township, Michigan, US * Bertrand, Michigan * Bertrand, Virginia, US * Bertrand Creek, state of Washington * Saint-B ...

* Boris Dragojevic * CJ Hendry *

Charles Bell Sir Charles Bell (12 November 177428 April 1842) was a Scotland, Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian. He is noted for discovering the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in ...

* Claudio Bravo *

Clive Head Clive Head (born 1965) is a painter from Britain. Biography Head was born in Maidstone, Kent, the son of a machine operator at Reed's Paper Mill in Aylesford. He was born to Swazi parents but developed vitiligo at a young age. Head had a preco ...

David Kassan David Jon Kassan (born February 25, 1977 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American painter best known for his life-size representational paintings, which combine figurative subjects with abstract backgrounds or ''trompe-l'œil'' stylings. Of t ...

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

David Parrish David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Davis Cone Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gree ...

Dennis Wojtkiewicz Dennis Wojtkiewicz (born 1956 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American Hyperrealist painter and draughtsman. Wojtkiewicz graduated from Southern Illinois University and is artist associated with the Hyperrealist movement. He is best known for his l ...

* Dimitri Desiron *

Don Jacot Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

Dragan Malesevic Tapi Dragan (, sr-Cyrl, Драган) is a popular Serbo-Croatian masculine given name derived from the common Slavic element '' drag'' meaning "dear, beloved". The feminine form is Dragana. People named Dragan include: Politicians and office holde ...

* Eric Dillman * Eric Zener * Carole A. Feuerman * Fola David * Franz Gertsch *

Frederic Gracia Frederic may refer to: Places United States * Frederic, Wisconsin, a village in Polk County * Frederic Township, Michigan, a township in Crawford County ** Frederic, Michigan, an unincorporated community Other uses * Frederic (band), a Japanese r ...

* Gilles Paul Esnault *

Glennray Tutor Glennray Tutor (born 1950 in Kennett, Missouri) is an American Painting, painter who is known for his photorealism, photorealistic paintings. He is considered to be part of the Photorealism art movement.Eric Gibson (writer), Eric Gibson, "Outward ...

* Gottfried Helnwein *

Gus Heinze Gus Heinze (born May 1, 1926 in Bremen, Germany) is an American photorealist painter. Early work From 1947-1950, Heinze studied under Robert Weaver, Howard Trafton, and Robert Ward Johnson at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Students Leag ...

Hilo Chen Hilo Chen (born October 15, 1942 in Yilan, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese-born American painter. He is best known for his photorealistic paintings of the female figure. He lives and works in New York. His work is in major museum collections throughout ...

* Howard Kanovitz *

Hynek Martinec Hynek Martinec (born 12 November 1980 in Broumov) is a Czech-British painter, who graduated from the Studio of Classical Painting Techniques under the supervision of Zdeněk Beran at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. After his studies he left for ...

Ian Hornak Ian Hornak (January 9, 1944 – December 9, 2002) was an American draughtsman, painter and printmaker. He was one of the founding artists of the Hyperrealist and Photorealist fine art movements; credited with having been the first Photoreal ...

István Sándorfi István Sándorfi (In France ''Étienne Sandorfi'', 12 June 1948 in Budapest, Hungary, – 26 December 2007 in Paris, France) was a Hungarian hyperrealist painter. Istvan (known as Etienne) Sandorfi was born in Budapest in 1948 and died in 200 ...

Jack Mendenhall Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

Jerry Ott Jerry Duane Ott (born 1947) is an American artist. He is best known for his photorealism work and creative use of painting surfaces. His latest technical development are paintings wrapped across two- and three-dimensional surfaces. They range fr ...

John Baeder John Baeder (born December 24, 1938) is an American painter closely associated with the photorealist movement. He is best known for his detailed paintings of American roadside diners and eateries. Early life John Baeder was born in 1938 in So ...

John Kacere John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

John Salt John Salt (2 August 1937 – 13 December 2021) was an English artist, whose greatly detailed paintings from the late 1960s onwards made him one of the pioneers of the photorealist school. Although Salt's work developed through several distin ...

Jorge Melicio Jorge is a Spanish and Portuguese given name. It is derived from the Greek name Γεώργιος ('' Georgios'') via Latin ''Georgius''; the former is derived from (''georgos''), meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker". The Latin form ''Georgius'' ...

* Joseph Canger *

José Ramón Muro José Ramón Muro Pereg (born 14 July 1954 in Bilbao, Vizcaya) is a Spanish painter. He specializes in hyperrealist paintings. Biography Early life Born in Bilbao in 1954, Muro began painting from childhood. At age 22 he presented his fi ...

Juan Francisco Casas Juan Francisco Casas (born September 21, 1976 in La Carolina, Jaén, Spain, Jaén, Andalusia) is a Spanish artist and poet. Casas recreates photographs he's taken as large scale oil paintings on canvas, as well as similarly scaled drawings using ...

* Juan Gonzalez * Kamalky Laureano *

Kelvin Okafor Kelvin Okafor (born 1 November 1985)

* Ken Nwadiogbu *

Malcolm Morley Malcolm A. Morley (June 7, 1931 – June 1, 2018) was a British-American artist and painter. He was known as an artist who pioneered in varying styles, working as a photorealist and an expressionist, among many other styles. Life Morley was ...

* Marilyn Minter * Mark Jenkins * Maurizio Cattelan * Michal Ožibko *

Noah Creshevsky Noah Creshevsky (January 31, 1945 – December 3, 2020) was a composer and electronic musician born in Rochester, New York. He used the term hyperrealism to describe his work. Biography Trained in composition by Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Lucia ...

Oresegun Olumide Oresegun Olumide is a Nigerian hyper-realistic artist. On 8 March 2016, he received media attention in Nigeria and beyond after he posted some of his oil on canvas paintings on social media website Facebook. Early life and education Born in Ik ...

* Oscar Ukonu * Otto Duecker *

Patricia Piccinini Patricia Piccinini (born 1965 in Freetown, Sierra Leone) is an Australian artist who works in a variety of media, including painting, video, sound, installation, digital prints, and sculpture. Her works focus on "unexpected consequences", conv ...

Patrick Chuka Patrick Chukwuka Onyejiaka (born 17 March 2000), professionally known as Patrick Chuka or ArtistChuka, is a Nigerian artist who primarily works with charcoal and ballpoint pen. He also paints with oil, pastel and acrylic, largely focusing hi ...

Paul John Wonner Paul John Wonner (April 24, 1920April 23, 2008) was an American artist best known for his still-life paintings done in an abstract expressionist style. Born in Tucson, Arizona, he received a B.A. in 1952, an M.A. in 1953, and an M.L.S. in 1955� ...

* Paul Thekhttp://www02.zkm.de/thek/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=37 www02.zkm.de] *

Peter Anton Peter Anton (born 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American artist and sculptor. Anton is known for his sculptures around the theme of candy. Exhibitions Peter Anton’s sculptures have been featured in solo exhibitions in Europe, the Uni ...

* Peter Maier *

* Randy Dudley *

Raphaella Spence Raphaella Beatrice Spence (born 1978) is a British photorealism, photorealist and hyperrealism (visual arts), hyperrealist painter. Biography Spence was born in London, England in 1978. At the age of twelve, she moved to Rome, Italy, with h ...

* Richard Estes * Richard McLean * Robert Bechtle *

Robert Cottingham Robert Cottingham (born 1935 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American artist known for his paintings and prints of urban American landscapes showing building facades, neon signs, movie marquees, railroad heralds and shop fronts.

* Robert Gniewek *

Robert Neffson Robert Neffson (born December 28, 1949) is an American painter known for his photorealistic street scenes of various cities around the world, museum interiors and for early still lifes and figure paintings. Life Neffson was born in New York Cit ...

Roberto Bernardi Roberto Bernardi (born 1974 in Todi, Italy) is a photorealist painter who explores the beauty of everyday life though the reflections and transparencies in his still life paintings, using as his main subject plates and glasses, kitchens applia ...

Robin Eley Robin Eley (born in London, England in 1978) is an Australian hyperrealist painter. Personal life Eley was born to an Australian father and Chinese mother. In 1981 his family migrated to Australia where he completed his secondary education at P ...

* Rod Penner *

Ron Kleemann Ron Kleemann (July 24, 1937 – May 30, 2014) was an American photorealist painter. Kleemann has been recognized as one of the original artists of the Photorealism movement.Meisel, Louis K. ''Photorealism'', Harry N. Abrams, New York, NY, 1980. Hi ...

* Ron Mueck * Sebastian Krüger *

Taner Ceylan Taner Ceylan (born 1967) is a German-born Turkish photo-realist artist. He lives and works in Istanbul. Biography Taner Ceylan studied painting in the Fine Arts Faculty at Mimar Sinan University between 1986 - 1991. He then worked for the Fine ...

Terry Rodgers Terry Rodgers (born September 11, 1947) is an American artist known for his large scale canvases that focus on portraying contemporary body politics. He was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in Washington, D.C., He graduated cum laude from ...

* The Kid * Tom Blackwell *

Yigal Ozeri Yigal Ozeri (born 1958) is an Israeli artist based in New York City. He is known for large-scale cinematic portraits of young women in landscapes. His works are photo-realistic oil paintings. His son is Adam Ozeri, a professional soccer player. ...

Zharko Basheski Zharko Basheski ( mk, Жарко Башески) (born 11 August 1957) is a Macedonian sculptor and professor in the Sculpture Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje. His work falls under the Hyperrealism (visual arts), hyperrealism mo ...

References

External links