Hyperreality (art)

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As a relatively new school of painting, hyperrealism is a recognized outgrowth of the school of photorealism. Through convincing photographic imagery, hyperrealist painters routinely create a two-dimensional simulation of a three-dimensional reality. Hyperreal paintings are convincing illusions of reality based upon photographic images which attempt to represent reality. Hyperrealists or Hyperreal painters include Alicia St. Rose, Jacques Bodin, Denis Peterson, Steven Mills and Mariano Morakis. [1]

Hyperrealism is contrasted with the similarly literal, photorealistic style found in photorealist paintings of the late 20th century. Photorealist painters tended to imitate photographic images, often working very systematically and consciously omitting details. The photorealist style is tight and precise, with a mechanical look, and an emphasis on mundane everyday imagery; whereas, the hyperrealist style tends to be more literal as to detail and its emphasis, rather than avoidance of, photographic anomalies, including digital fractalization, image degradation and subtractive vs additive color creation, i.e. CMYK versus RGB color wheels. As such, it incorporates and often capitalizes upon photographic limitations such as depth of field, perspective and focus to create a new hyperreality.

Both schools of art utilize mechanical means of transferring images to the canvas in some way, including thorough preliminary drawings, or underpaintings. Photographic slide projections onto canvases techniques such as gridding may also be used to preserve accuracy. Both styles require a high level of technical prowess and virtuosity to simulate; however, despite their similarities, the two styles are distinctly apart from one another.

As a relatively young art movement, hyperrealism, transcends mere double-take illusionism to incorporate iconographic imagery of phenonenological spatial representations and lighting. Extreme detail and ethereal lighting effects are often added to create an appearance of reality, as opposed to a mere photographic simulation. Certain of these hyperreal painters have incorporated profound social, cultural and political themes as an extension of the simulchra; a stark departure from the school of photorealism. Hyperreal paintings are a literal imitation of living reality as distinguished from the particular photograph or photographs used. This frame of reference is considered by hyperrealists to be an artificial representation of an image captured in time and as a process tool of art to further the painted illusion of hyperreality as a representation of a representation.