Realist Art
REALIST STYLE
Realist art attempts to portray its subject matter without artifice. Similar to naturalism, authentic realist paintings and prints see an integration of true-to-life colors, meticulous detail and linear perspectives for accurate portrayals of the world.
Work that involves illusionistic techniques of realism dates back to the classical world, such as the deceptive trompe l’oeil used since ancient Greece. Art like this became especially popular in the 17th century when Dutch artists like Evert Collier painted objects that appeared real enough to touch. Realism as an artistic movement, however, usually refers to 19th-century French realist artists such as Honoré Daumier exploring social and political issues in biting lithographic prints, while the likes of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet painting people — particularly the working class — with all their imperfections, navigating everyday urban life. This was a response to the dominant academic art tradition that favored grand paintings of myth and history.
By the turn of the 20th century, European artists, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, were experimenting with nearly photographic realism in their work, as seen in the attention to every botanical attribute of the flowers surrounding the drowned Ophelia painted by English artist John Everett Millais.
Although abstraction was the guiding style of 20th-century art, the realism trend in American modern art endured in Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and other artists’ depictions of the complexities of the human experience. In the late 1960s, Photorealism emerged with artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes giving their paintings the precision of a frame of film.
Contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Aliza Nisenbaum are now using the unvarnished realist approach for honest representations of people and their worlds. Alongside traditional mediums, technology such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations are helping artists create new sensations of realism in art.
Find authentic realist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.
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Style: Realist
Artist: Slim Aarons
Top People's Eatery
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Journalist Lucius Beebe beside a gold place setting in the glass-roofed Garden Court of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. His walking stick once bel...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Down To The Pool
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A group of women going down the the steps to the pool at Warren Avis' villa, 'La Barranca' at Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico, April 1979.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer,...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Slim Aarons 'Sunbathing In Burgenstock'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons
Sunbathing In Burgenstock
1955
C print
estate edition of 150
Lilian Hanson, sunbathing by a pool at the Brgenstock Resort in Cant...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Nirvana
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The pool at Villa Nirvana, Acapulco, Mexico. Old Acapulco can be seen across the bay.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to off...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Guests At Villa Nirvana
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the Villa Nirvana, owned by Oscar Obregon, in Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico, 1978.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud ...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Britt Ekland, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1969, Swedish actress Britt Ekland in Porto Ercole, Italy.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the ...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Oberon's Lunch
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
circa 1966: Film star Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979) and lunch guests at her villa, La Consentida, Acapulco. The star is second from the right facing the camera. A Wonderful Time - Slim ...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Villa Vera
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The bar at the Villa Vera Hotel Spa and Racquet Club in Acapulco, January 1968.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer thi...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Edna Lewis, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A restaurant in Positano, Italy, 1958. One of the woman is art director Edna Lewis.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Sli...
Category
1950s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Governing Couple
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Nancy Reagan and her husband film star and Governor of California, Ronald Reagan (later the 40th President of the USA) in Acapulco, mexico.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your fr...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
La Concha Clientele
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the La Concha Beach Club, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is prou...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Lunch At Merle's
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
English actress Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979, second from right) and lunch guests at her villa, La Consentida, Acapulco, 1966.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Las Brisas
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The coastline near Warren Avis' villa in Las Brisas, Acapulco, January 1978.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this v...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Gloria Schiff
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Gloria Schiff, the twin sister of Consuelo Crespi, with her pet dog and pet birds at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas.
40 x 40 inches
$3950
30 x 30 inches
$3350
24 x 24 inches
$3000
Com...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
On The Slopes Of Sugarbush, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Two skiers inspecting their skis on the slopes of the Sugarbush Mountain ski resort in Warren, Vermont, United States, April 1960.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authen...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Habitation Leclerc
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Bathers walking down steps to the swimming pool at Habitation Leclerc, Haiti, January 1975. They are followed by a waiter with cocktails.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your frame...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Poolside Bar, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests seen from a poolside bar at the Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, Italy, August 1980.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped ...
Category
1980s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Ice Bar in Lech, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Customers at the Ice Bar at the Hotel Krone in Lech, Austria, 1960.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate
C...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Signpost'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons
Bahamas Signpost
1964
C print
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate.
A signpost in Nassau points the way to...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Racquet Club Pool
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Swiss bandleader and restaurateur Teddy Stauffer (1909 - 1991) with Dorothy Webb and Mrs Charles Rogers in the pool at the Villa Vera Spa & Racquet Club p...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Acapulco Pool
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Architect Arturo Pani and his wife by their swimming pool at home in Acapulco, Mexico.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to o...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Oberon's Lunch
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
circa 1966: Film star Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979) and lunch guests at her villa, La Consentida, Acapulco. The star is second from the right facing the camera. A Wonderful Time - Slim ...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Top People's Eatery
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Journalist Lucius Beebe beside a gold place setting in the glass-roofed Garden Court of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. His walking stick once bel...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Villa Vera
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The bar at the Villa Vera Hotel Spa and Racquet Club in Acapulco, January 1968.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer thi...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
In Vogue
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Vogue magazine editor Topsy Taylor, a visitor to Acapulco, circa 1966.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibrant...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Skiing in St. Mortiz, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Countess Jan Bonde in the Palace Hotel sleigh on Lake St. Moritz, Switzerland, 1983
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category
1980s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Palermo (formerly Taormina Pool), Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This rich, vibrant Slim Aarons Estate Edition photograph depicts a swimming pool at the glamorous Villa Igiea, in the Sicilian cultural, economic and tourism capital of Palermo, on t...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Commander Whitehead
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Commander Edward Whitehead (1908 - 1978), the public face of Schweppes, leans on a silver Rolls Royce at Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, April 1974. Commander Whitehead served in ...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Nirvana Quartet
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Oscar Obregon Salazar Gomez Velez Guzman y Murphy (centre, left) with Karen Murphy, Robin Goodland and Melissa Engelhardt at the Villa Nirvana hotel, Acapulco, Mexico, 1986.
Compli...
Category
1980s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Racquet Club Pool
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Swiss bandleader and restaurateur Teddy Stauffer (1909 - 1991) with Dorothy Webb and Mrs Charles Rogers in the pool at the Villa Vera Spa & Racquet Club p...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
C.Z. Guest With Her Great Dane, Palm Beach (Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
C.Z. Guest, 1955: The American socialite with a Great Dane at her ocean-front estate, Villa Artemis, in Palm Beach, Florida, 1955
Slim Aarons
C.Z. Guest With Her Great Dane, 1955
La...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Positano Beach, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera beach in Positano, Italy, 1979.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Polo World Cup, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Polo World Cup at St Moritz, February 1989.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Es...
Category
1980s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Leisure Time In Acapulco
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The pool at Villa Nirvana, Acapulco, Mexico. Old Acapulco can be seen across the bay.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to off...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Peggy Guggenheim
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
September 1978: Peggy Guggenheim (1898 - 1979) in the Palazzo Venier Dei Leoni, Venice. The palace houses her private art collection, including Picasso's 'On the Beach', pictured to ...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Poolside Bar, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests seen from a poolside bar at the Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, Italy, August 1980.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped ...
Category
1980s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Acapulco Pool
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Architect Arturo Pani and his wife by their swimming pool at home in Acapulco, Mexico.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to o...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Phil Richard's Pool, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A poolside party at Phil Richards' home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 1970.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aar...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Las Brisas
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A villa in Las Brisas, Acapulco, February 1972.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibrant photograph, printed by...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Las Brisas
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A villa in Las Brisas, Acapulco, February 1972.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibrant photograph, printed by...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Pool at Las Brisas, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
An underwater view of the pool at the Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
Slim Aarons
Underwater Drink
Acapulco
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate
Collector will receive the next number in the edition
Modern printing from original transparency
C-type print on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper,
Crisp detail, continuous tone and brilliant color
Paper weight 210gms
Matte Satin Surface
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Over the course of a career lasting half a century, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) portrayed high society, aristocracy, authors, artists, business icons, the celebrated and their milieu. In doing so, he captured a golden age of wealth, privilege, beauty and leisure that occurred alongside—but quite separate from—the cultural and political backdrop of the second half of the Twentieth Century.
Photograph is unframed
Slide show includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp.
Collector will get the next number in the edition
* We are pleased to offer the entire archive of the Slim Aarons Estate, offering the official Slim Aarons Estate Edition (only offered in this edition of 150). *
Undercurrent Projects, New York, is proud to represent Aarons' full collection of negatives and transparencies. Housed at Getty Images Hulton Archive in London, The Slim Aarons Estate has released the limited Estate edition as a Lambda print, which is a modern c-type prints. They have chosen Lambda prints for their sharpness, clarity, colour saturation and quality, compared to archival inkjet prints. Lambda printing gives true continuous tone.
#slimaarons #acapulco. Vintage scene...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Monte Carlo Swimwear, Estate Edition: Classic midcentury French Riviera style
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A woman in a black cutaway swimsuit and turquoise scarf under a red, fringed umbrella in Monte Carlo, Monaco, in August 1970.
In this classic Slim Aarons scene of 1970's vintage seaside glamour, a red umbrella with white fringe adds movement at the top right corner, and the subject's arms direct the viewer's eye across the picture in a zig-zag fashion. In the background, yellow and green umbrellas shade...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Top People's Eatery
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Journalist Lucius Beebe beside a gold place setting in the glass-roofed Garden Court of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. His walking stick once bel...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Nirvana
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The pool at Villa Nirvana, Acapulco, Mexico. Old Acapulco can be seen across the bay.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to off...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Lake Worth
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A vibrant purple twilight sky over the Lake Worth inlet, Palm Beach, Florida, 1955
40 x 40 inches
$3950
30 x 30 inches
$3350
24 x 24 inches
$3000
Complimentary dealer shipping to...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Monte Carlo Swimwear, Estate Edition: Classic midcentury French Riviera style
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A woman in a black cutaway swimsuit and turquoise scarf under a red, fringed umbrella in Monte Carlo, Monaco, in August 1970.
In this classic Slim Aarons scene of 1970's vintage seaside glamour, a red umbrella with white fringe adds movement at the top right corner, and the subject's arms direct the viewer's eye across the picture in a zig-zag fashion. In the background, yellow and green umbrellas shade...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Nirvana
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The pool at Villa Nirvana, Acapulco, Mexico. Old Acapulco can be seen across the bay.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to off...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Leisure Time In Acapulco
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The pool at Villa Nirvana, Acapulco, Mexico. Old Acapulco can be seen across the bay.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to off...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Governing Couple
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Nancy Reagan and her husband film star and Governor of California, Ronald Reagan (later the 40th President of the USA) in Acapulco, mexico.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your fr...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Villa Nirvana
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the Villa Nirvana, owned by Oscar Obregon, in Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects ...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Princess Hotel
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The swimming pool at the Princess Hotel, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1975.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projec...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Leisure Time In Acapulco
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The pool at Villa Nirvana, Acapulco, Mexico. Old Acapulco can be seen across the bay.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to off...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Lake Worth
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A vibrant purple twilight sky over the Lake Worth inlet, Palm Beach, Florida, 1955
40 x 40 inches
$3950
30 x 30 inches
$3350
24 x 24 inches
$3000
Complimentary dealer shipping to...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Villa Nirvana
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests at the Villa Nirvana, owned by Oscar Obregon, in Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects ...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Acapulco Rocks
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Architect Arturo Pani and his wife by their swimming pool at home in Acapulco, Mexico.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to o...
Category
1950s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Acapulco Holiday
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Deckchairs lined up beside a swimming pool in Acapulco, February 1966.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibrant...
Category
1960s Realist Art
Materials
C Print
Hotel Punta Tragara, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, Italy, August 1974.
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim...
Category
1970s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Acapulco Rocks
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Architect Arturo Pani and his wife by their swimming pool at home in Acapulco, Mexico.
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Undercurrent Projects is proud to o...
Category
1950s Realist Art
Materials
Lambda
Realist art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Realist art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Slim Aarons, Michael Budden, Daniel Pollera, and Su Yu. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Realist art, so small editions measuring 0.1 inches across are also available.
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