detail

Photo Realism

Duane HansonRichard Estes Janet FishChuck Close

reflection

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light

photographic

Photo Realism Major players: Chuck Close | Richard Estes | Janet Fish

They believed that photographic images have become more real to many people than actual objects

They used paints and brushes, but saw the world through the lens of a camera.

Many of their works were actually mistaken for photographs.

Often the artist is detached from the subject. Their works tended not to have an emotional quality at all.

Nothing is personal about the subject matter, and there is rarely a single focal point.

P H O T O - R E A L I S M

Janet FishPhoto-Realism

Janet never considered herself to be a photo-realist, but her complex still life paintings have clearly been influenced by photography.

Born in 1938, Janet stated that she cannot remember ever wanting to be anything but an artist. Her Grandmother was a sculptor and her Grandfather was a painter.

She graduated from Yale in 1963-- she was discouraged from painting realistically the entire time she attended college.

After graduation, she moved to New York City. There she lived in an unheated loft apartment and had to take showers at friend’s houses. She spent most of her money on painting supplies and object to paint.

Janet FishPhoto-Realism

Green Glass for Alexis

Tightly cropped images that fill the entire frame.

Foreground and background are compressed as if seen through a telephoto lens

Emphasis was on reflection and pattern.

Focus was on how light plays on the surface of reflective objects

Green Glass for Alexis

Janet FishPhoto-Realism

Fish Vase

All details are equally important.

Eye moves through the composition in an effort to see all of the equally important details.

Often seen from above (hovering)

Reflecting patterns of light and shadow.

Vibrant color (later work)

Undefined sense of space.

Often uses mirrored surfaces

Used natural sunlight

Visual Characteristics

Fish Vase

Janet FishPhoto-Realism

Waterlilies and Peaches

“My real subject is the movement of light and color from one form to another”

“I want my paintings to have energy, a movement that goes across the entire surface.”

Quotes

Waterlilies and Peaches

gallery of images

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Chuck ClosePhoto-Realism

Chuck Close was influence by the images of the Pop Artists. He felt the same way about America’s dependence on the second hand visual experience.

None of his “portraits” are traditional. They tell us nothing about the subject’s lives, feelings, character, profession, or social status.

His works are merely paintings of photos of faces.

The overwhelming detail forces us to think not about the subject, but about the image itself- how and why it was made.

Chuck ClosePhoto-Realism

Leslie. 1973

He magnified every blemish and imperfection.

His early work was created using an airbrush, as to mimic the mechanical quality of a photograph.

The process of creating the painting was equally important to Chuck Close as the finished image.

Leslie 1973

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Chuck ClosePhoto-Realism

Self Portrait. 1991

“I paint heads because heads matter to everybody. If you paint a face big enough, it’s hard to ignore.”

“My real subjects are not people, I paint portraits of photographs”

“If you make something new and personal, it may not look like art at all.”

Self portrait 1991

Chuck ClosePhoto-Realism

In 1988 Chuck Close was hospitalized due to the sudden collapse of a spinal artery. He has since been paralyzed from the waist down.

He continues to paint on the same scale that he had always painted on. Now he has attendants that help him with the preliminary work, but he still does the actual painting.

Sometimes he sits on a forklift, and other times he uses a special mechanical easel that raises, lowers, and rotates his canvases for him.

Chuck ClosePhoto-Realism

Keith

Uses a grid to enlarge the photos onto the canvas.

Frontal head posed in almost a passport-photo view

Unsmiling lips and dead-pan eyes.

Used several different media to create his portraits:

Airbrush, Fingerprints, Crayon, Acrylic Paint, Oil Paint, Pencil, Pen, Paper Collage,

Chuck Close Gallery

Alex 1987

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April 1991

Cindy 1988

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Elizabeth 1989

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Eric (in progress)

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Joel 1993

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Lucas 1991

Roy II

Self portraits

Chuck Close