27.11.2013

The disturbing reality of hyper realistic painters

Our suggestion today: Let’s have a look at one of the most impressive artistic movements during the last decades, hyper realism. From our point of view, sure.

Willem Dafoe´s portrait, by Charles Close

Hyper realism is the realistic painting carried to the extreme. It appears in the United States at the end of the 60’s as a style opposite to the 50’s abstractionism. The point is to reproduce reality more detailed and with more objectivity than photography does, it is the “no brush-stroke” movement, the work to be perfect shouldn´t have traces of brush-strokes.

Lorna Simpson´s daguerreotype, by Charles Close

Obama´s poster, by Charles Close

One of the first artists in this movement was Chuck Close, whose big portraits have the maximun detail in the material surfaces. We can say that he was the pixel precursor as in his portraits it can be observed, on detail, every single little square that forms the master, each one of them has its own identity.

Central Savings, by Richard Estes

Cafe Express, by Richard Estes

Richard Estes´s works are recognized by the use of refractive light in all his pieces, since 1967, in which there are always images reflected in shiny surfaces. The acrilic and oil quality is different, the acrilic gives flatter surfaces and more vividly colors, the oil offers texture’s variety. His paintings are generally landscapes and cities retrospectives, he could be included in the photorealistic movement.

Family portrait, by Malcolm Morley

Malcolm Morley, another photorealistic painter, creates inmaculate humane figures. In his work Family Portrait, we can observe the magnificent job in the skin and the fabrics. Furthermore, in the painting background there’s a mention to the abstract movement, he painted a couple of canvases typical of the 50’s. The color in all his works is a clear chromatic inspiration in the photography of the 60′s.

Venus, by Claudio Bravo

A repeated theme all over the different pictorial styles in our history is that of the Venuses, female nude body’s representations. Claudio Bravo’s Venus impresses us with the definitive demonstration of the fabrics and surfaces treatment.

La Gran Via in Madrid, by Antonio López

The most representative hyper realism painters in Spain are Antonio López, (we wrote about him at Antonio López, “realism is wonderful because it is where everything fits”) and today we have the pleasure to highlight the young painter Juan Francisco Casas.

Hyper realistic portraits by Juan Francisco Casas

Throughout the big Juan Francisco Casas canvases wander sex, women, alcohol… the vision of a whole decade, the youth of those who were born in the 70’s precisely reflected in faces exuding erotism. The author’s friends portraits plus the typical blue ink of the Spanish “Bic” pen are the keys to his great work.

You can enjoy his whole work here.

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