Photorealism
Description
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 used broadly to describe artworks in many different media, it is also used to refer to a specific art movement of American painters that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Chuck Close
Master Photorealist who revolutionized portraiture with monumental, hyper-detailed airbrushed grid paintings based on black-and-white and color passport-style photographs.
Richard Estes
Premier Photorealist painter of urban landscapes whose intricate oil paintings of reflective glass storefronts, stainless steel diners, and city streets capture multi-layered optical reflections.
Audrey Flack
Pioneering female Photorealist who introduced vibrant, emotional still-life Vanitas compositions bursting with perfume bottles, jewelry, and historical symbols using projection and airbrush techniques.
Ralph Goings
Exemplary Photorealist painter dedicated to working-class American vernacular scenes, depicting gleaming chrome diner interiors, ketchup bottles, pickup trucks, and roadside eateries with impeccable clarity.
Robert Bechtle
California Photorealist known for his sun-drenched, deadpan depictions of middle-class suburban neighborhoods, parked station wagons, and family gatherings in the San Francisco Bay Area.
John Baeder
Photorealist painter who spent decades documenting and preserving roadside American diners through meticulously detailed oil and watercolor paintings.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
While many critics initially dismissed Photorealism as mere mechanical copying of photographs, the artists actually utilized complex grid systems, slide projectors, and multiple photographic exposures to construct compositions that were sharper and more evenly focused across the entire canvas than any single camera lens could ever capture.
↗ Source: tate.org.uk
Audrey Flack was one of the very first Photorealist painters to embrace full, saturated color and use an industrial airbrush to apply acrylic paint, allowing her to achieve seamless, glass-like gradients without leaving a single visible paintbrush mark.
↗ Source: moma.org