Will Realism be in Fashion Again???

[Sharon Knettell]

Whether realism is in fashion again is a moot point. The question is whether or not painting that values aestheticism, craftsmanship and honesty will be back in fashion.

I think one of he reasons 'realistic' work has been the whipping boy of the art market is the hegemony of French Academic School. Because of the sexually repressed Victorians, nudes could only be disguised as goddesses or shown off in slave market scenes such as in the egregious paintings of Alma-Tadema. Manet had the courage to challenge that stranglehold with his wonderful painting "Olympia", a frank portrait of a courtesan.

I think the experiments with color and format has in some way been liberating, but unfortunately painters have lost the idea of craftsmanship and replaced coherent picture making with exploring their own neuroses in paint.

A great deal of the changes in painting at that time came with the influx of Asian art with its sensuous color, formlessness. and lack of perspective. Artists were freed from the necessity to always depict form and to explore color for its on sake. In my opinion this produced one of the most joyful and exquisite eras of art, Impressionism. The play of color in a Degas, Monet, Van Gogh and a Frieseke are like listening to the most painfully beautiful passages in a Mozart concerto.

If 'realistic' painting is to 'come back', we cannot insist on exhuming the past, slavishly recreating it, celebrating only skill and excluding new points of view and freshness. Unfortunately what I see in this return to 'reality' is just that. There are acres and acres of quite skillful but trite paintings.

I think if we want to see a resurgence of representational or good painting we must challenge ourselves more, toss out tired concepts and dare to do something that may scare us a little.

[Carlos Ygoa]

It's contest season here in Spain and about two weeks ago I joined one of them here in a nearby town. One of those contests wherein you sign in, they stamp the back of your blank canvas and you go off to find a spot somewhere and paint whatever strikes you, and you're supposed to submit a finished work at the end of the day. This one was about 7 hours.

I've joined these contests in the past and have never won.
Juries have been known to select the avante-guard type of painting, the school of spatter and stain, but I don't mind...I join them every now and then because I have a good time painting outdoors, get to meet people, etc.

This time, in this particular contest, I opted to join the still life category. I was selected as a finalist (among 29 others of a total of about 115 painters), but did not win. Below I've posted my work (first image) followed by the one that won. Both measure about the same size (100 x 81cm) Mine, as you can see is different (not better), just wanted to point out that judges have criteria that don't coincide with my
own. It would seem they have the same judges in all the contests.
I had a good time, though and am happy to have been selected. If traditional, representational "good painting" takes the limelight again, it would appear we have come full circle, and would mean (to me, at least) that the wandering about the "isms" and the spattering and the staining that the art world has been up to the past decades has begun to prove itself as unfulfilling.
But then again, this is just a "traditional, old master loving, naturalist" painter talking.

Carlos

[Michele Rushworth]

Mine, as you can see is different (not better).

I disagree with you!

[Allan Rahbek]

Hi Carlos,
I agree with Michele, to disagree with you.

Allan

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by Allan Rahbek

Hi Carlos,
I agree with Michele, to disagree with you.

Allan

So do I Carlos...

[Thomas Nash]

The best advice I ever got about contests is to not take them too seriously whether you win or lose.

It's interesting to study what the "fashions" are and to understand the thinking of the world around us. We don't want to be oblivious to what is going on or what others think.

On the other hand, every artist might ask themselves whether they would do anything differently even if their style was not popular? If the answer is that no, you would continue to paint/draw/dance/sing the way you want to regardless of the current trends, then you don't need to invest much time worrying about what is or is not fashionable.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Thanks everybody for the posts...

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by Thomas Nash

The best advice I ever got about contests is to not take them too seriously whether you win or lose.

It's interesting to study what the "fashions" are and to understand the thinking of the world around us. We don't want to be oblivious to what is going on or what others think.

On the other hand, every artist might ask themselves whether they would do anything differently even if their style was not popular? If the answer is that no, you would continue to paint/draw/dance/sing the way you want to regardless of the current trends, then you don't need to invest much time worrying about what is or is not fashionable.

I have a lot to learn from you Tom.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

I think if we want to see a resurgence of representational or good painting we must challenge ourselves more, toss out tired concepts and dare to do something that may scare us a little.

That's what I'm trying to do Sharon, I don't want to be remembered as an ordinary painter.

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

I think one of he reasons 'realistic' work has been the whipping boy of the art market is the hegemony of French Academic School. Because of the sexually repressed Victorians, nudes could only be disguised as goddesses or shown off in slave market scenes such as in the egregious paintings of Alma-Tadema. Manet had the courage to challenge that stranglehold with his wonderful painting "Olympia", a frank portrait of a courtesan.

I want to thank an artist from Spain who corrected me in an email on my Alma-Tadema reference. It was Gerome who painted "The Slave Market", not the aforementioned Alma-Tadema. I accidently lost his contact information.