ROME.- Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome is hosting for the first time an exhibition dedicated to hyperrealistic sculpture, exhibiting 43 mega-installations by the greatest contemporary artists.
The sculptures are so impressive, and the details so realistic down to the minutest particulars, that it is hard to distinguish a real body from an artwork.
The artists on display, 29 in total, are leading stars on the international scene: from Maurizio Cattelan (present with such iconic works as the pigeons in his Ghosts installation or his famous banana, properly titled Comedian) to Ron Mueck, who is showing a gigantic man’s head with Dark Place, joined by George Segal, Carole Feuerman, Duane Hanson, and a host of others.
An exhibition. that provokes, that raises questions. A show that brings together the artists who have caused more debate than anyone else: what is it that allows hyperrealistic sculptures to short-circuit the viewers’ minds? We know the works are not real, and yet the skin, hair, beards and fingers suggest otherwise. The nude bodies scandalize us; the eyes hypnotize us; and the dimensions – sometimes in perfect scale and sometimes false – confuse us: It looks alive, but is it really?
This enormous selection of works from collections around the world reveals the multinational nature of the hyperrealism movement which, starting from the 1970s, constantly evolved, always adopting new and varied techniques for modelling, casting, and painting the material, to reach increasingly high levels in the realistic representation of the human figure.
Hyperrealistic sculptures emulate the shapes, contours, and textures of the human body or its individual parts, creating a dazzling visual illusion and an extreme verisimilitude: natural-sized sculptures of common people, imitating the highly tangible presence of another human being.
Sembra vivo! is a “supervisual” show that, between art and philosophy, induces reflection upon the meaning of the essence of the visible, through anonymous figures and works done in natural size. Almost obsessively reproducing reality with great attention to the minutest details, these works create a nearly surreal impact, in which the viewer is automatically led to question the effectiveness of the mimesis and the truthfulness of the illusion, in a representational art that goes beyond Realism and transcends the meaning of truthfulness.
The exhibition was conceived by Institut für Kulturaustausch, Germany and curated by Maximilian Letze in collaboration with Nicolas Ballario. It was produced and organized by Arthemisia which, once again and after the major success of the exhibitions devoted to Jago and Leandro Erlich, is staging new and visionary projects on the landscape of contemporary art in Italy.
THE EXHIBITION
This exhibition presents, in six sections, the myriad of possibilities open to the hyperrealists. Each part is organized around a central concept relating to form, providing a starting basis for considering the individual artists’ works.
The selection of works offers a condensed – but unprecedentedly ambitious – overview of the trajectory of hyperrealism, revealing the extent to which the depiction of the human form has been subject to continuous changes.
The exhibited artists’ various nationalities (from the United States, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Great Britain, Australia, and other countries) highlight the international nature of the hyperrealism movement, which continues to develop and evolve around the world.
43 works by 29 great names in international hyperrealistic art: from Ron Mueck’s cinema- inspired set pieces to the “sacred and violent” works by Berlinde de Bruyckere; from Maurizio Cattelan, the artist of scandal, whose sculptures have made him the subject of countless polemics in half the countries on earth, passing by way of Carsten Höller’s worlds of psychedelia and fable (a fable not exactly for children) to the most controversial duo in recent years: Elmgreen & Dragset.
And then there are Sam Jinks, Patricia Piccinini, John DeAndrea, Carole A. Feuerman, George Segal, Brian Booth Craig, and a host of other superstars of contemporary art.
Section 1 – Deceptive moves: human clones
Between the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Duane Hanson and John DeAndrea did sculptures that looked like people in flesh and bones, using processes of an extreme technical laboriousness.
The high degree of realism in their works transmits the illusion of a real corporality, and the resulting effect is convincing enough to make them full-blown human replicas. The works by these artists have had a decisive influence over the later developments in sculpture over thepast fifty years.
Subsequent generations of artists adopted this practice, taking it forward even further. Like a mirror of the human condition, these works reveal how the perception that human beings have of the image of themselves has changed in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Section 2 – Noble simplicity: monochrome sculptures
After years during which abstract art held sway, George Segal’s monochromatic sculptures reopened the door to the possibility of realistic depictions of the human figure. Following in his footsteps, later generations of artists have continued to develop an interest in realistic sculpture. While the absence of natural coloration tends initially to reduce the realistic effect, it also serves to further exalt the aesthetic qualities of the human form. Artists like Robert Graham and Brian Booth Craig have managed to make the best use of this effect, creating works as a means to question universal human nature.
Section 3 – Piece by piece: parts of the body
Any list of the forerunners of hyperrealism must include American sculptor Carole A. Feuerman, whose famous swimmers, introverted and self-determined, appear to be in complete harmony with themselves.
Later, starting in the 1990s, many artists began giving the hyperrealistic effect a new and personalized shape. Instead of creating the illusion of a perfect corporality, of a unique entity, they focused on specific parts of the human body, using them as a vehicle for humorous or even disturbing messages; an example of this is the work by Maurizio Cattelan, in which the arms separated from the rest of the body evoke associations with contemporary history.
Section 4 – Change of perspective: playing with scale
In the 1990s, Australian artist Ron Mueck revolutionized figurative sculpture with his works in unusual formats. By radically enlarging or reducing the dimensions of his figures, he aims to focus attention on existential themes like birth or death. Artists like Sam Jinks and Marc Sijan capture the fragility of life in their depictions of human physiognomy – depictions that, although partially smaller than natural size, are still surprisingly realistic. Conversely, the oversized works by Zharko Basheski produce a distancing effect, placing people and the viewer in a new perspective.
Section 5 – The manipulated self: deformed realities
In recent decades, the countless conquests of scientific progress and the new perspectives of the world in the era of digital communication have brought about radical change in how we understand reality. Influenced by virtual reality, artists like Evan Penny and Patricia Piccinini have begun to observe bodies from distorted perspectives. Tony Matelli challenges the laws of nature, while Berlinde DeBruyckere, with her contorted bodies, questions death and the ephemerality of human existence. The value and meaning of life is one of the key themes of hyperrealistic sculpture.
Section 6 – Beyond species
This section dedicated to the world of animals is intended as decompression. After a long series of works exalting the human body and our obsession with every detail of it, here there are other species that appear to have been abandoned by a small group of artist/poachers. However, the human being is most certainly to be found in these works, because there is nothing at all natural about these beasts: they are the result of mutations, breeding and hybrids. In essence, they spring from an anthropocentric dominance that allows us to live the oxymoron of an artificial nature, so synthetic and counterfeit that it leads us to believe that a snake or octopus can have a sense of humour – or that hundreds of pigeons are actually the souls of those who, over the centuries, have experienced Palazzo Bonaparte.
