Photorealist Abstract Prints
A direct challenge to Abstract Expressionism’s subjectivity and gestural vigor, Photorealism was informed by the Pop predilection for representational imagery, popular iconography and tools, like projectors and airbrushes, borrowed from the worlds of commercial art and design.
Whether gritty or gleaming, the subject matter favored by Photorealists is instantly, if vaguely, familiar. It’s the stuff of yellowing snapshots and fugitive memories. The bland and the garish alike flicker between crystal-clear reality and dreamy illusion, inviting the viewer to contemplate a single moment rather than igniting a story.
The virtues of the “photo” in Photorealist art — infused as they are with dazzling qualities that are easily blurred in reproduction — are as elusive as they are allusive. “Much Photorealist painting has the vacuity of proportion and intent of an idiot-savant, long on look and short on personal timbre,” John Arthur wrote (rather admiringly) in the catalogue essay for Realism/Photorealism, a 1980 exhibition at the Philbrook Museum of Art, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At its best, Photorealism is a perpetually paused tug-of-war between the sacred and the profane, the general and the specific, the record and the object.
“Robert Bechtle invented Photorealism, in 1963,” says veteran art dealer Louis Meisel. “He took a picture of himself in the mirror with the car outside and then painted it. That was the first one.”
The meaning of the term, which began for Meisel as “a superficial way of defining and promoting a group of painters,” evolved with time, and the core group of Photorealists slowly expanded to include younger artists who traded Rolleiflexes for 60-megapixel cameras, using advanced digital technology to create paintings that transcend the detail of conventional photographs.
On 1stDibs, the collection of Photorealist art includes work by Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Charles Bell and others.
Early 2000s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Color, Lithograph, Offset
2010s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Mixed Media, Digital, Screen, Pencil, Graphite
Early 2000s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Lithograph
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Aquatint
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Abstract Prints
Digital Pigment
1970s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Lithograph
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Pencil, Linocut
1970s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Abstract Prints
Paper, Etching
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Abstract Prints
Metal
Late 20th Century Photorealist Abstract Prints
Ink, Acrylic, Lithograph, Paper
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
Early 2000s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
Early 2000s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
Early 2000s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
2010s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Paper, Inkjet, Pigment, Archival Pigment
1940s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Lithograph
Early 2000s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Lithograph, Screen
1970s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Offset, Lithograph
2010s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
1870s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Etching, Aquatint
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Ink, Lithograph, Offset
Early 2000s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Lithograph, Offset
1970s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Lithograph, Offset, Other Medium
2010s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Metal, Gold Leaf
2010s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Archival Pigment
2010s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Paper, Inkjet, Pigment, Archival Pigment
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Color, Screen
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
1980s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen
1970s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Abstract Prints
Canvas
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Abstract Prints
Canvas
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Abstract Prints
Canvas
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Abstract Prints
Canvas
1970s Photorealist Abstract Prints
Screen