Photorealism: realism > abstraction

An interesting art movement that evolved from Pop Art was Photorealism. It emerged as a counter to Abstract Expressionism as well as Minimalist art movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States. Photorealists study a photograph and then attempt to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Since the advent of photography in the early 19th century artists have used the camera as a tool in picture making; however, they would never reveal their dependency on photographs as to do so was seen as "cheating." But Photorealists acknowledge the modern world's mass production and proliferation of photographs, and they don't deny their dependence on photos.

By the time the Photorealists began producing their bodies of work the photograph had become the leading means of reproducing reality and abstraction was the focus of the art world. Realism continued as an ongoing art movement, but by the 1950s modernist critics and Abstract Expressionism had minimalized realism as a serious art undertaking. Though Photorealists share some aspects of American realists, they tried to set themselves as much apart from traditional realists as they did Abstract Expressionists.

Like Pop artists, Photorealists include everyday scenes of commercial life—cars, shops, and signage, for example. Many Photorealists adamantly insist that their works aren't communicative of social criticism or commentary. However, it's hard to deny that these works are recognizably American.

Photorealists, along with some practitioners of Pop art, reintroduced the importance of process and deliberate planning over that of improvisation and automatism, into the making of art. In other words, the traditional techniques of academic art were again of great significance, and painstaking craftsmanship was prized after decades of the spontaneous, accidental, and improvisational.

McDonalds Pickup (1970) by Ralph Goings

Flowered Table Top (1978) by Goings

John's Diner with John's Chevelle (2007) by John Baeder