England – London
“When we look at a photorealistic painting, there is a double image: we see both a painting and an image clearly derived from a photograph. The subject of the painting of [Don] Eddy, for example [Private parking III, 1971, editor's note] "It's not a Volkswagen, but a photograph of a Volkswagen. The painting corresponds as much to the photograph as to the car."
Thus, in 1973 Lawrence Alloway highlighted the duplicity of hyperrealistic images and dispelled any confusion regarding the photorealist movement that emerged in the United States in the mid-1960s, in the wake of pop art: although born in reaction to the prevailing abstract expressionism and minimalism, and although aiming for an ultra-meticulous reproduction of reality, it was indeed painting – and, what's more, painting that reveals itself (through the traces of the brush or the impasto)…
A paradox which our gaze delights in, as evidenced by the works of the masters of the genre gathered at the Waddington Custot Gallery: John Baeder, Charles Bell, Tom Blackwell, Davis Cone, Robert Cottingham, Don Eddy, Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, David Parrish, John Salt… all the protagonists of the movement which developed until the end of the 1980s are present.
Among other bravura pieces, let us mention the Harley Davidson gleaming, painted from a low angle and tightly framed by David Parrish, the car seat with torn silver upholstery by John Salt, the close-up of the racing car by Ron Kleemann, or the almost deceptive still life with ketchup by Ralph Goings (Still Life [Color Pick], 1982).
Beyond illusionism
Among the recurring motifs, as in Pop Art murals, are all the products, emblems, and other fetishes of consumer society: illuminated signs, billboards, shop fronts, supermarket shelves, restaurants, gas stations, cars, motorcycles, toys… Favoring reflective surfaces (glass, chrome, leather, or plastic), photorealist painters (who often painted from black and white photographs) demonstrate extraordinary virtuosity in rendering textures and the fleeting effects of light and shadow, but also in capturing the detached, flat (monocular) perspective of the camera. By making colors shimmer (often invented) and altering perspectives, they create works of composition.
Despite appearances, far from being exact copies of photographs, photorealistic paintings are "artistic interpretations". "I simply use the subject as a starting point for composing the painting," said Robert Cottingham. Interviewed in 1972, Don Eddy stated: “This raises the question of whether you are looking at an illusion of objects in space or a representation of a flat piece of paper—a photograph—which is itself a representation of things in space. The idea of being photographic or true to reality doesn't really interest me. It's the references between what we know, what we see, what we think we see, and what is there, between the surface of the canvas and the illusion within the canvas. It seems to me that these are the real issues.”
“Picture This –” Photorealism 1966-1985
Until June 24, 2023
Waddington Custot Gallery
11 Cork Street, London (England)
waddingtoncustot.com