I found Heartney's reference to Pliny's story interesting with the idea of realism and imitation to be seen as both an effort to be truthful to the appearance of an object and also be seen as false and as visual trickery. Over Easter i saw an exhibition at The National Gallery of Victoria which was similar to Artexpress featuring high school student's final artworks. I noticed that most of the students employed a very realistic interpretation of the subjects they presented,and by watching the audience i found the most photorealistic works attracted the most attention. One series in particular by Rania Tabet depicts everyday objects in these almost flawless paintings. I found it interesting that audiences are still drawn so strongly to realism.
Eleanor Heartney, Art and Today. (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008).
2 comments:
i agree whole heartedly with your final statement, public audiences almost always seem to be more drawn to the photo realistic works. be it because they are easily recognisable or because it allows the uneducated to merely appreciate the aesthetics and not feel like they are missing a deeper meaning as would be the case with a more abstract work.
it appeals to a reality that they can recognise instantly, for example the image you posted is obviously a jug, some oranges and a juicer. while we as artists may feel the need to draw reasoning behind it's construction, those without the artistic background can see this, understand it is a representation of those objects and is seemingly fulfilled with that base meaning.
this is all probably incredibly obvious but i figured it was important to note my reasoning
YES - I agree three!
Strange really our obsession with realism... consider the so called 'reality tv' explosion as an alternate experience of the real...
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