Art is generally perceived as a way of detachment from the real-life, a key to revealing some invisible meaning in the world that surrounds us. It is a means of communication. But it isn’t entirely true for all the genres of art like hyperrealism, where the thin line between reality and art is virtually erased in sculptures and paintings these artists create. Numerous branches of realism are focused on producing artwork that resembles a real-life image; some out of them even go further and beyond.
The fundamental contrast between Hyperrealism and Photorealism is in the artist's approach to their work. While photorealists aimed to reproduce photographs as precisely as possible so the human eye could not differentiate between the original and the painting, the hyperrealist artists insert narration and feelings into their work. Labelled as a significant advancement of photorealism, the style of hyperrealism still contains some elusive differences from its predecessor. At the same time, the hyperrealists took the technique even further. They developed ways of including charm, narrative and emotions into the image. As the saying goes “Hyperrealism may create the atmosphere of surrealism as no one sees the world in such detail.”
The origin of the word hyperrealism can be traced back to 1973 when Isy Brachot fabricated the title for a catalogue and exhibition at his gallery in Brussels. The exhibition involved influential artists like Richte, Gnoli and Delcol, but it was directed by American photorealists such as Chuck Close, Ralph Goings, and Don Eddy. After the event, the term hyperrealism was used by sculptors influenced by the photorealists.
Hyperrealism is a movement I originated along with Duane Hanson and John D'Andrea, in the 1970’s. We created sculptures that resembled a photograph from a distance, but when up close, they were three-dimensional works of art. The sculptures were more than technique. We took it one step further, to create a more detailed and definitive rendering, often containing a certain amount of narrative and emotion.
Conclusively, hyperrealism offers an extremely effective means of exploring how we, as individuals, interact with ourselves and with others from our everyday lives. For this specific reason, artists have the freedom to use hyperrealism in portraying humans through an array of lenses ranging from the social, political to the psychological, aesthetically, external workings of the human mind and body.
To create hyperrealism, you must go over and above, past the current level, which is precisely what hyperrealist artists did. So, how did it go? Did they stray beyond the line of art, where their work became a just an example of superb skill, or did they, blur the lines between art and reality, making way for a new hyper-artistic expression?