Photorealism - artists, an exhibition, a video and 71 photos

The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is the only place in the UK which is playing host to the first and largest European retrospective exhibition of Photorealism until 30 March 2014. You can see a set of 71 photographs of the exhibition on Flickr. It's a great pity that the photographs do not identify the artists by name.

Showcasing key photorealist artists from the 1960s to the present day, the exhibition explores the questions and debates raised by the movement on what makes an authentic image and the ways in which we perceive the world.

This is a video of the exhibition Hyperrealism 1967-2012 at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid from when the exhibition was on display at this famous museum in Madrid.

Photorealism At the Thyssen-Bornemisza from Leland James on Vimeo.

This is the first exhibition in Spain to trace Hyperrealism’s development from its beginnings to the present. When the movement made its appearance in the United States in the late 1960s, Louis K. Meisel dubbed it “Photorealism”, describing Photorealists as artists who used the camera unreservedly as an aid to painting and transferred their images to canvas by mechanical, semi-mechanical or technical methods in such detail that the high resolution gave their paintings the illusion of being photographs.
Hyperrealism Microsite

The video features both Louis K. Meisel talking about the meeting up of the painters - plus commentary by the artists featured in the exhibition who include:

• John Baeder - an American painter closely associated with the Photorealist movement, best best known for his Diner Paintings - detailed paintings of American roadside diners and eateries.
• Charles Bell - an American Photorealist and Hyperrealist, known primarily for his large scale still lifes with vibrant colour
• Tom Blackwell - one of the original first generation of Photorealists (originator of the shop window reflection paintings?)
• Anthony Brunelli - an American photorealist painter of streetscenes and cities
• Chuck Close - an American painter who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale photo-based portraits.
• Don Eddy - an American painter who gained initial fame as a photorealist. This page on his website demonstrates the process used to produce his paintings
• Richard Estes - considered to be a founder of photorealist painting and best known for his paintings of city scenes
• Audrey Flack - an American artist known for her pioneering contributions to photorealist painting, printmaking, and public sculpture.
• Robert Gniewek - a second-generation photorealist painter,who paints scenes of mid-century American roadside.
• Ralph Goings - an American painter closely associated with the Photorealism movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s
• Don Jacot - an American painter, primarily identified as a photorealist
• Ben Johnson - a British painter, best known for his series of large, detailed cityscapes.
• Bertrand Meniel - a third generation Photorealist primarily focusing on urban scenes
• Robert Neffson - an American painter known for his street scenes of various cities around the world 
• Rod Penner - paints photorealistic images of small-town America.
• Yigal Ozeri - one of the most significant photorealist painters today

You can also review the Interactive Magazine associated with the exhibition.  This highlights there three motifs Still Life, On the Road and Cities and Bodies and includes:

• an introduction to Hyperrealism 1967-2012 - including a virtual visit to the exhibition at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.  It's worth noting just how large some of the pieces are.
• sections of the exhibition
• work in progress - artists comment and show their working processes
• videos about the exhibition

You may still be able to download this from iTunes.