Customer Reviews
It's a photo, it's a painting, it's Photorealism! - By: Robin Benson, 27 Dec 2002 
The story continues & in colour too! A brilliant third volume from the curator of the Photorealist art movement & made more enjoyable because the six hundred plus paintings are alll in colour. I have the two previous books & good as they were I always felt they were let down by having too many of the 2,323 pictures in black & white but here's an interesting point, the first book had 710 colour & 493 b/w, the second book had 560 colour & 560 b/w, this latest book has 620 colour & no black & whites, does this mean the Movement is on the wane? I hope not because I feel that Photorealism is somehow a uniquely American art movement.
The format follows the same style as the others, an upfront essay (in this case Linda Chase writes about the use of photography by artists over the last century or so) followed by hundreds of illustrations from the featured artists, twenty-eight in this book. These artists are continuing to record 'the fascinating in the familiar' as Ms Chase succinctly puts it & this is one reason I love these paintings, they record Americana so wonderfully, though it is worth remembering that when these paintings, many of them huge, are reproduced a few inches wide it tightens up alll the detail & they become even more 'photographic'. On page seventeen of the first volume twelve artists work was shown (unfortunately in black & white) the same size as the original painting & you can see how different their brushstrokes are.
Of the artists, some of my favorites are Davis Cone for his movie theaters (and if you like him too, have a look at a lovely book about movie theaters & his paintings, eighty shown in 'Popcorn Palaces') Robert Gniewek for street scenes at night, Charles Bell the pinballl wizard, Linda Bacon for her toy tableau's including one callled 'Crash' which has a three toy car pile-up & artfully uses Grant Wood's painting 'Death on the Ridge Road' as a backdrop. Perhaps the most amazing paintings in the book are Don Jacot's 'Retro-Active' (it took most of 1998 to paint) & 'Garbo's' (2001) both show shop-fronts with the windows crammed with nostalgia antiques. I sometimes think these artists do their best to make the painting as hard to do as possible!
So, a lovely book to enjoy over & over & thank you Mr Meisel for your faith in these artists & the Photorealist movement. I'm looking forward to the fourth volume around 2010.
