Tony Khawam
Broadway Limo Reflections
1980

About the Item

Khawam’s first genre of paintings started in 1980 during the heights of the Superrealism movement in New York City where Khawam was the youngest among the group and in his first year of undergraduate art studies at the School of Visual Arts. The hyper realistic painting series he created was influenced by the surrounding objects of New York city reflective surfaces, such as window display, glass building façade, and metallic cars in the streets of New York. The objects and scenes in Superrealism paintings are detailed to create the illusion of a new reality that does not exist in the original photo. Textures, surfaces, lighting effects and shadows are often painted to appear clearer and more distinct than the reference of a photo or even the actual subject. Hyper-realist style emphasizes detail rather than the subject. The paintings are not literal illustrations of a particular scene or subject, but rather use subtle pictorial elements to create the illusion of a reality which in fact either does not exist or cannot be seen by the human eye. The paintings may incorporate emotional, social, cultural and political thematic elements as an extension of the painted visual illusion. Hyperreal paintings and sculptures further create a tangible solidity and physical presence through subtle lighting and shading effects. Shapes, forms and areas closest to the forefront of the image visually appear beyond the frontal plane of the canvas; and in the case of sculptures, details have more clarity than in nature. Hyper realistic images are typically ten to twenty times the size of the original photographic reference source, yet retain an extremely high resolution in color, precision and detail. Many of the paintings are achieved with an airbrush, using acrylics, oils or a combination of both.

Creator:

Tony Khawam (1959, American)

Creation Year:

1980

Dimensions:

Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)

Medium:

Acrylic

Movement & Style:

Realist

Period:

1980-1989