AMERICAN ART SINCE 1945 Realism

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AMERICAN ART SINCE 1945Realism Super realism

• ANDREW WYETH
• EDWARD HOPPER
• GEORGE SEGAL
• AUDREY FLACK
• RICHARD ESTES
• DUANE HANSON

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Andrew Wyeth

• Andrew Wyeth made realism respectable again
  during the late 1940s and is still one of the
  most popular painters in America today. He
  explores the loneliness and desolation
  experienced in Mid-Western rural America. As in
  Christinas World, 1948 Wyeths landscapes often
  suggest that there is something out there that
  we dont see.

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Wind from the Sea, 1947

• Wyeths paintings give us fleeting glimpses of
  rural views. Often he includes the presence of
  wind, footprints or tracks which allude to the
  subliminal activity in the countryside that goes
  unnoticed. The inclusion of a window frame often
  cuts the viewer off from the scene and creates
  almost a voyeuristic image.

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Winter, 1963

• Wyeths landscapes are typically barren. Many of
  his works are done in tempera, which allows him
  to focus on surface texture, yet his objects
  appear to have no solidity. His style has been
  described as that of a sophisticated primitive,
  and sole figures in expansive fields are one of
  his favourite subjects.

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Haybarn, 1968

• Wyeth gives us a nostalgic look at rural life.
  His objects - all part of intimate country
  living, show wear and tear yet it is as though
  time has stood still. For these reasons there has
  been many parallels made of Wyeths work with
  that of nineteenth century novelists such as
  Hardy and Coleridge.

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Bedroom in Maine, 1969

• His works can be described as modern in that
  they are placeless and timeless yet all of his
  scenes are located in Pennsylvania or Maine. His
  images are from the voice of a country dweller,
  but in fact they are immediately recognised and
  identified with by his city audience.

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Cranberries, 1972

• His paintings begin as hazy sketches and then an
  intimate mood is created through his ability to
  freeze the essence of a particular place, often
  set against an afternoon sun. A magical key to
  his success is the skill of blending fantasy
  with reality with such deftness that it defies an
  easy explanation.

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Edward Hopper

• Just as Wyeth explored rural life, Hopper focused
  on loneliness and life in the American city since
  the 1930s. As in Nighthawks, 1942 Hopper looks
  at the pathos of daily life. In his scenes
  figures are placed next to one another but there
  is little communication.

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Early Morning in Pennsylvania, 1938

• Hoppers paintings are structured through
  architectural forms which give them a sense of
  weightiness and solidity. His use of strong
  directional light and extensive use of
  chiaroscuro enable him to show his most intimate
  impressions of nature within a highly organised
  composition.

10
House, 1943

• His study of rooftops and architecture gave him
  the ability to refine and reduce forms to remove
  all trivial detail to the point where the scenes
  appear almost bleak. This gave his style a sense
  of abstraction.

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Hotel Lobby, 1946

• Even though the figures do not communicate, the
  scenes contain an intimacy that seems as though
  Hopper has been there. As a spectator, we observe
  figures in his paintings that are unaware of
  being watched.

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Morning, 1962

• Hoppers images have a strong emotional tone,
  like a recording of a past experience. An
  anonymous face becomes inscribed in our memory.
  Often there are moments of déjà vu, or we feel a
  sense of familiarity. A seemingly banal scene is
  transformed into a vision shrouded in atmospheric
  light.

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Woman in Sunlight, 1961

• Hoppers figures move slowly, turning their blank
  faces to the light. They relax, or are stilled in
  some transitory pose that is reminiscent of
  Degas, whom Hopper admired. Hopper believed his
  style depended on creating a voice within his
  figures, by emphasising all the elements that
  cannot be expressed, but give the painting life.

14
George Segal

• George Segal creates traditional sculptures from
  white plaster casts which are combined with
  assemblages to create a complete environment. The
  figures which are cast from live models appear
  frozen in time. Like classical ruins, they exist
  in the real world yet are also works of art.

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The Parking Garage, 1972

• In his earlier works, Segal makes no attempt at
  giving the figures natural colourings. They are
  completely unemotional, in poses and subjects
  that are directly taken from daily life. The
  familiarity of the themes allow us to identify
  immediately with the scenes, so the figures
  become part of our own way of life.

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Girl on a Chair, 1976

• Segal composes his installations through drawings
  and studies of movement. The casts maintain their
  rough surface to give them an expressive
  appearance. Because of his inclusion of ready
  mades as props, the figures are set in their own
  boxed space. This makes the works relate more to
  painting than sculpture.

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People on Park Benches, 1974

• Segal emphasises feelings of sadness and
  loneliness in his works. He suggests that our
  current life is anonymous and non-communicative.
  He illustrates this point by confronting the
  viewer with everyday, genre scenes.

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The Dancers, 1976

• Segals scenes are not prettified many of the
  figures look ugly or clumsy, making them
  disturbing to look at. Segal wanted his audience
  to be able to walk around and interact with the
  figures. Gesture was of primary importance in the
  construction and arrangement of the installation.

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Girl in Front of a Black Window, 1982

• In his later works, Segal introduces colour and
  texture into his works. Paint and colour were
  used to unify contrasting materials and
  structures. This also intensifies the dream
  element in his work, so we continue to question
  what is real and what isnt?

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Audrey Flack

• Audrey Flack is a super realist whose huge
  billboard sized canvases bring the real,
  commercial world into art. Her airbrushed works
  such as this one Queen, 1976 show no sign of the
  artists hand, remaining completely objective and
  analytical.

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Marilyn, 1977

• Flacks works are a modern version of the Dutch
  still life vanitas paintings that emphasise
  fragile and transient objects in the passing of
  time. Like this work, many of her paintings are
  intimate self-portraits which include objects
  that are loaded with symbolism.

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Wheel of Fortune, 1976

• Flacks scenes are highly composed yet made to
  look jumbled. Often the objects are seen from an
  aerial view so that volumetric forms are squeezed
  into a two-dimensional space. In this work she
  explores the impact of fate, chance and astrology
  on human life.

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Chanel, 1978

• Many of Flacks works explore the history and
  significance of womens ideals. Here she uses a
  famous feminine brand to show her concern for
  surface and how this became an illusion because
  it was based solely on the materiality of paint.

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Crayola, 1980

• Audrey Flack uses the camera so that she can
  reproduce visual characteristics exactly as they
  are. It enabled her to capture a single moment in
  time. It was essential that every form,
  reflection, shadow and pattern was captured
  accurately in each work.

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Rich Art, 1981

• Flacks paintings often looked at optical effects
  and light. She generally limits herself to three
  high-key glossy colours which give the paintings
  a highly reflective surface. Paintings of simple,
  repetitive objects which have a special
  significance to her form a type of personalised
  narrative.

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Richard Estes

• Richard Estes is completely self-taught and makes
  no secret of his use of photographs for his
  paintings. One of his main aims in his work is to
  achieve total craftsmanship, which he believed
  was abandoned by the Abstract Expressionists.
  Using either oils or acrylics, he will merge two
  or three photographs together like here in
  Spirit, 1996.

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Urban Landscape, 1978

• His favourite subject matter is urban street
  scenes. Estes will take several shots at
  different light and focus settings some are
  just details of areas. As he is combining scenes
  together he needs to use more than one vanishing
  point.

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Central Savings, 1976

• Reflections are an important feature of his work
  they have a solid appearance, so he asks the
  question - which image is real? This point is
  further emphasised by Estes strong confident
  brushwork, where edges are rarely blended and
  brushstrokes remain visible in the paintings.

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Café Express, 1975

• Estes main focus is on New York. Here windows on
  an angle to the spectator creates deep
  perspective and complex patterns of reflection.
  
• Estes believed that there needed to be no
  explanation about his work. His photo realism was
  able to say it all.

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Façade, 1980

• Comparisons have been made between Estes work and
  the early twentieth century photographs of Eugene
  Atget and Bernice Abbott for their extensive use
  of cropping within a complex linear structure,
  stunning effects of light and shadow and sharp
  focus.

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Parking Lot, 1982

• Staggered light patterns, fragmented views with
  intricate reflective imagery combined with
  vigorous architectural perspectives reminiscent
  of cubism and futurism energize and authenticate
  Estes scenes,even though the woven nature of
  the final paintings ensure they more fiction than
  fact.

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Duane Hanson

• Duane Hanson wanted to create sculptures that
  were replicas of human beings. His figures
  differed from waxworks in that he totally
  reformulated his person type, rather than just
  mimicking them. His figures are made of
  fibreglass and silicon. He adds real hair, glass
  eyes, extensive makeup and props to make the
  person as realistic as possible as in Young
  Worker, 1978.

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Old Lady on Folding Chair, 1976

• Hanson portrays real and typical ordinary
  American people in that he is interested in the
  individuals real character. The viewer becomes
  a voyeur into other peoples lives. Many of his
  scenes are of people from lower socio-economic
  classes.

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Janitor, 1982

• Hansons style seems to personal and intimate to
  be super realist, which is renown for its
  detachment and objectivity. However, his figures
  are super realist in that they are
  indistinguishable from real people, they are
  totally lifelike. In this work only one figure is
  a sculpture which one?

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Body Builder, 1984

• Unlike Segal whose figures emphasised roughness,
  Hanson removes all forms of clumsiness. The
  sculptures flesh is painstakingly painted to
  resemble its texture in reality. Hanson
  intensifies life, bringing into sharp focus the
  characteristics which define an individual,
  indicating their position within society.

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Chinese Student, 1990

• Hanson is seen as a social critic, a satirist. He
  goes to great lengths to include even the
  slightest action, pose or expression for absolute
  accuracy. Each figure is a treatise on
  psychiatry, economics and the class system.
  Primarily he wants to give us a vision of a slice
  of American life. Secondly, to impart to the
  spectator a fleeting, momentary expression.

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Child with Puzzle, 1979

• Hanson brings commonplace and genre scenes to the
  art gallery which raises questions about how art
  commentates on society. Many of the figures seem
  to have an empty and lonely existence, but Hanson
  believes that he captures the true reality of
  life for these people.