Photorealist Portrait 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.
1990s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Portrait Prints
Archival Ink, Rag Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Portrait Prints
Canvas
1970s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Archival Ink
1970s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Gold Leaf
1980s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
Early 2000s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Offset, Lithograph
1970s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Etching
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Portrait Prints
Paper, Giclée
1970s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Etching
1970s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Etching
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1940s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Offset
Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Giclée
1980s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph, Paper
Early 2000s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Offset, Lithograph
1990s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1980s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Paper, Lithograph
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Metal
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Metal
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Inkjet, Canvas
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Offset, Lithograph, Permanent Marker, Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Portrait Prints
Rag Paper, Archival Pigment
21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Portrait Prints
Archival Pigment
Early 2000s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph, Offset
Early 2000s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph, Offset
Early 2000s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph, Offset
Early 2000s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph, Offset
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Pigment, Paper
1970s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
1970s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Lithograph
Early 1900s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Paint, Color
2010s Photorealist Portrait Prints
Inkjet