Photorealism

Photorealism is a style of painting or drawing. The picture is done with a lot of detail to make it look exactly like a photograph. The subjects pictured were often boring, without any special interest.^[1] Photorealism developed as an art style in the 1960s and 1970s. The famous photorealist artists are Richard Estes and Chuck Close and Ralph Goings.^[1]

A photorealist drawing

History of Photorealism

Once, a style called abstract expressionism was the most popular type of art in the United States. Then, there came photorealism, which was very different from abstract expressionism. It started because some artists didn't like abstract art and wanted to make art that looked real. They began in the late 1960s. There weren't many of them at first, but their style became very popular in the 1970s.^[2]

When Photorealism was included in the Realism part of the Documenta exhibition in 1972, it was a big deal. This exhibition was organized by Harald Szeemann and Jean-Christophe Ammann in Kassel, West Germany. It helped Photorealism get noticed all around the world.^[3]

Famous artists

• Robert Bechtle
• Charles Bell
• Chuck Close
• Robert Cottingham
• Richard Estes
• Jeff Koons
• Richard McLean