"Reality is frequently inaccurate."
"In cases of major discrepancy it's always reality that's got it wrong." | - Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe |
Hyperrealism is a post-modernist theory that’s not to be mistaken as a movement in Western philosophy, but rather an art that incorporates the ‘real’ world’s highly realistic surroundings in an unusual, very different and appealing manner which creates a false reality for the audience.
Post-modernism is a way of thinking which challenges the modernism for its adherence to fundamental truth, called ‘meta-narratives’. Post-modernism views ‘reality’ as unreal, or one which can be understood in different stories or ‘narratives’. This can be best understood as the fact that in any group of people, anything will be described in many different ways, depending on the person’s viewpoint. Hyperrealism uses the imagination to trick the viewer. Human perception cannot tell between what is real and what is imagined.
Hyperrealism evolved from the photorealism movement in the art world which came about in 1973 when a Belgian named Isy Brachot coined the term in one of his art exhibitions in France. Many other photo realists were there at the time such as: Ralph Goings who is best known for his highly detailed paintings of hamburger stands, pick-up trucks, and California banks, portrayed in a deliberately objective manner, Chuck Close who is best known for his detailed portrait paintings or extreme close ups on a specific body part, Don Eddy who is best known for his amazing landscape hyperrealist paintings , Robert Bechtle who is best known for his realistic paintings of the neighbourhoods and streets and Richard McLean just to name a few.
However in the early 21st century hyperrealism was formed on the principles of photo realism. Hyperrealist painters and sculptors used photographic images as a reference source which was then changed using different textures, surfaces, lighting