It happened in 1966, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. A group of artists, sculptors, and painters presented an exhibition under the title *The Photographic Image*. The show was announced with the eloquent words: “Attention, there is no camera.” They were obsessed with offering a reproduction that was literally identical to reality. And they succeeded.
Hyper-realistic, Super-realistic, or Photorealistic?
Watch our latest Shorts!
The artists of this movement were called hyperrealists, superrealists, photorealists, precisionists, or new-realists. All of these denominations came to have a single meaning. Antecedents to hyperrealism can be found in the work of artists like William Harnett, an American painter who, in the 1890s, was known for his incredibly detailed still lifes.
Hyperrealism Arrives in Europe
Following the initial exhibitions, the movement gained momentum throughout the United States, and by the 1970s, hyperrealism had arrived in Europe. It was embraced on the old continent as one of the latest avant-garde innovations. Although it is considered a successor to Pop Art, due to its shared interest in popular culture and consumer society, the movement and its form of artistic expression caused a sensation.
A review in *Life* magazine from April 1970 noted that at exhibitions at the Whitney Museum in New York, the guards had to check the rooms several times at closing to verify that no visitors remained, because “the portraits were so real that visitors were confused with them.”
The Precursors of Hyperrealism
There are many names associated with the beginning of this movement, which was never considered a unified group. Audrey Flack, Howard Kanovitz, Malcolm Morley, Ralph Goings (two of his works can be seen below), Don Parrish, Robert Cottingham, Richard Estes, and Chuck Close were some of the most prominent figures.
Currents of Photographic Hyperrealism
Two main trends stood out within the movement: one was closer to the photographic realism of Pop Art, and the other was closer to traditional, academic pictorial art, inspired by great painters like Correggio, Velázquez, or Vermeer. Although they denied being mere photographers, there is no doubt that photography had a decisive influence on the hyperrealist conception. As Audrey Flack pointed out, “My Nikon becomes an extension of my own eyes. Thanks to its optical possibilities, it sees things that I can’t see.”
Magical Realism
In Spain, the painters who practiced a similar artistic form were known as “Magical Realists.” Artists like Antonio López, Isabel Quintanilla, and Francisco and Julio López Hernández also became known to the general public in the early 1970s.
The Hyperrealism of Ralph Goings
Ralph Goings’ painting, *Airstream* (1970), in which he uses an airbrush, depicts the urban landscape of California’s highways and service stations. His hyperrealistic art often shows what happens in gas stations, cafeterias, and shops located on the side of the road.
