Art &Technology
- Pop Art - Hyperrealism

Pop Art artist tried to redefine the relevance of realism for a painting and sculpture. Contrary to figurative painting in pre-modern painting the intention of the painters was however not to create a denotation towards an object of the real world but to put emphasis on an aspect of reality which can be visible in details - or they pointed towards a social or politcal problem by dramatically increasing the level of detail.

Duane Hanson: Old Lady on Folding Chair. 1976

Fig.: Duane Hanson: Old Lady on Folding Chair, life-size, 1976


Hanson's sculptures are critical remarks about consumerism. In the superrealistic sculpture "The Old Lady" he presents a replica of a museum visitor in a museum. The visitors must relate the sculpture to their own situation. They are told about how tiring it can be to watch the images of a gallery. They are also told about social roles and clichés.

There are different terms for realistic art forms. Figurative painting describes any painting which is non-abstract and tries to map a form of the real world into a form of the painting. Superrealism or Hyperrealism is a mode of over-emphasising the level of detail and pointing towards specific aspects of material properties. Photorealism is a technique applied by artists who project a photographic image upon the canvas and repaint the photograph as precise as possible.
Another game of painting figuratively is called surrealistic painting. The Surrealists use elements of the real world and composed them in an order which reflected their dreams and concepts ratter than physical reality

Superrealism,
Hyperrealism

Don Eddy: Dumper Section XX.
Acrylic on Canvas,122 cm x 168 cm, 1970
Realism

Edouard Manet: Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe.
(Luncheon on the Grass) 1863.
Surrealism René Magritte: Time Transfixed, 1934
.
Photorealism Chuck Close:
Big Self-Portrait. Acrylic on canvas
107 1/2 x 83 1/2 inches. 1968
Photographic Realism Thomas Ruff: Portrait (V. Liebermann), 210 x 165 cm,
1999




For the sake of a even more encompassing list of Realisms one might add a few more artistic movements here:

Nouveau Réalisme, Socialist Realism, the Vienna School of Phantastic Realism and the German "Magischer Realismus".