"Photorealism in Focus" Reframes a Movement at the Rose Art Museum

"In the late 1960s, Photorealism coalesced into a full-blown movement centered on capturing a degree of meticulous detail usually only found in photography and championed by a loosely associated group of artists that sought to challenge the creative hierarchy between painting and photography. The early history of the movement and its legacy, as well as the place within contemporary art that Photorealism continues to occupy, is the subject of a survey at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, " Photorealism in Focus.""

"These painstakingly rendered paintings inspire awe, as well as reflections on representation, perception, and how we translate visual reality into images and narratives. This exhibition underscores how the language of Photorealism-once revolutionary-remains vital and relevant today, as it continuously investigates the complex relationship between photography and painting."

"The exhibition is organized thematically and informed by the genres represented, together revealing the dynamic and expansive sources of inspiration artists have tapped for their work. An early pioneer of Photorealism, Robert Cottingham's Discount Store (1970) reflects his ongoing fascination with quintessentially American urban landscapes. His idiosyncratic cropping of images recalls the framing of photographs, but his planes of color resist photographic interpretatio"

Photorealism emerged in the late 1960s as a movement focused on replicating photographic detail in painting while challenging the hierarchy between painting and photography. A survey at the Rose Art Museum assembles work by more than thirty international artists across still lifes, portraiture, landscapes, interiors, painting, and sculpture. The exhibition emphasizes meticulous technique and prompts consideration of representation, perception, and the translation of visual reality into images and narratives. The presentation is organized thematically by genre to reveal diverse sources of inspiration and methods. Early practitioners such as Robert Cottingham combine photographic framing with painterly choices that resist pure photographic interpretation.

Read at Artnet News