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The Contemporary Realist Movement | The Epoch Times by Kara Lysandra Ross
The term, “Contemporary Art,” has long been associated with the Modernistand Post Modernist Movements because at the time they were created the words“contemporary art” or “modern art” also meant the art of today. However, thesemovements started several decades ago and today the terms have become deceptiveas a new movement of living artists is taking back the word contemporary andassociating it with the traditional techniques of the old masters applied tothe human experience as well as important subjects of the times. Thegeneral public is growing tired of art that needs long explanations andjustifications and more and more people want to recognize what they are lookingat and respond to it on a humanist level rather than a purely conceptual one.
The Contemporary Realist movement first started as a reaction to theModernist and Post-Modernists, who still dominate the art market today. Whenone can take a found object, put it in a museum and call it art, the generalfeeling among this growing movement is that the definition of art has become sobroad that the word “art”, as defined by the current art establishment, ceasesto have meaning. The modernist movement originated in the early 1900s andthe critics of that time noted “the avowed purpose of art has been tamperedwith by introducing the elements of a missing-word composition… Many friends ofart expect that it will meet its fate, but a few champions see a revolution inprogress.[1]” The Modernist underdogs quickly took hold of the art world,completely dominating it by the end of the 1940’s. After the tragedy of twoworld wars and the Great Depression, humanity was left with a heart of cynicismand a mind filled with existentialist thoughts; two qualities Modern andPost-Modern art took to its core. In reaction to this negative view on humanityand its accomplishments, theContemporary Realists felt mankind was best served by depicting through art,the qualities in life that unite us as people rather than the debasement ofcivilization. Nothing says more about a culture then the art it idolizes. Itrepresents what it values, what it thinks about, and essentially what it deemsworth remembering. Art is the representation of a people, encapsulating itsessence on every level, and these artists believe there is more to great artthen Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, which is really nothing more than atoilet, or Jackson Pollack’s oeuvre, which is nothing more thansplattered paint. Contemporary Realists looked back at the art that pre-datedthese global catastrophes, to the old masters, and especially the classical artistsof the 19th century, whose works reached their zenith directlybefore the onset of Modernism and was a Renaissance of new themes encapsulatingfreedom of speech through visual storytelling.
The internet has become, as with so many fields, the most important tool forthe Realist Movement. It allowed the movement to gain serious tractionabout 10 years ago by linking those like minded parties together, enabling themto find each other and promote their thoughts to others. Through groups suchas GoodArt, the Art Renewal Center (A.R.C.), was founded as a center forrealism. It became the largest online museum and the only one at that timededicated to traditional art. They searched out the remaining few atelierschools that still used the training methods of the old masters. Beingable to find only 14 in existence at that time with less than 200 students,A.R.C. advertised them to the public. Since that time the atelier schools havegrown dramatically with more and more created every year. On the Art Renewalwebsite 72 Atelier Schools and workshops arenow listed, with many times the number of students and more are out there thatare not listed as well. Other alliances also formed such as the AmericanSociety of Classical Realism, International Guild of Realism, AmericanSociety of Portrait Artists, Oil Painters of America, ChineseInternational Figure Painting, and the California Arts Club amongmany others. Magazines now exist that are dedicated to realism such as FineArt Connoisseur, Plein Air magazine, Artist Advocate, American artsQuarterly, Art of the West, and others. Head instructor of theAni Art Academy Waichulis, Anthony Waichulis states, “Over the past few years Ihave found that applications and program inquiries have increasedtenfold. It seems that this ever-growing resurgence in Realism isencouraging new aspiring artists to enthusiastically pursue fundamental skillbuilding on a scale I have not seen before. This is truly a wonderfulthing as I believe that effective education is one of the most powerful toolswe have to shape the future.”[2] These groups are all united if not literally then figurativelyin their goal to bring realist painting, drawing, and sculpture back to theforefront of modern day art.
The Atelier Schools are the foundation of the movement, they are the sourceof the proper training that is denied in most university and college artcurriculums. For Example, when I was getting my B.A. at DrewUniversity, which has a reputable artsprogram in New Jersey,I took a sculpture course. When I got to the class I learned that it did notinvolve clay, but it did involve found objects. When I asked what level ofsculpture started work with clay, I was told that I would need to take aceramics course if I wanted to make pots. As most realist artists know, clay isa foundational tool in learning how to sculpt the human figure, something thecollege program did not teach. Although this is one example, it is not uncommon,but the norm. At the Art Renewal Center,letters are received almost daily from artists and art lovers who have reportedsimilar experiences. Julian Halsby writes “I am writing from Britain to sayhow much I support your movement for the restoration of traditional values inart. There are many of us here in the UK who believe that modern art isin many ways a confidence trick and that traditional values must be restored inart schools. We have a magazine called The Jackdaw in which David Leeattacks the Art Establishment and… I write for The Artist magazine andoften express views similar to yours.”[3] James Oliver writes “I am an artist who has been disenchantedwith the art world to such a degree that I have pursued a science educationinstead. I think this site is the first real indication that the madness isbeginning to clear as humankind rediscovers the beautiful.”[4] Jean Corbeil writes “As an artist and teacher, I believe thatthe future will only be possible if we infuse the arts back where they alwaysbelonged, at the heart of human education”[5] These are only a small taste of the over 400 letters posted onthe A.R.C. website which have come in from all over the world and which allexpress similar views and experiences.
Unlike “normal” art schools, atelier schools focus entirely onrepresentational art. Their strict training curriculums often require an artistto take one or two years of drawing before being told they can move to paint.In the head Instructor of the Aristides Classical Atelier’s book, Lessonsin Classical Drawing, Juliette Aristides writes, “Your work, whetherdrawing, painting, or sculpture will stand only if it is constructed on a solidfoundation…Drawing is the most basic passageway through which you can access the power of art to express profound universalideas, feelings, beliefs, and truths” At the Angel Academy of Art, Florence,John Angel utilizes methods that have been developed over the last sixcenturies, not allowing them to die out. Over the years he has watched hisschool grow and is convinced “The twenty-first century is seeing a renaissancein Humanism, in the concern for a human way of life and in the figurative-artforms which echo that very thing”.
Atelier schools, organizations, magazines and websites are not the only tellsigns for the re-insurgence of traditional art. Auction prices forrealist paintings and sculpture have increased dramatically in the last 35years, especially for the 19th century, with artist such as WilliamBouguereau’s paintings going up in some cases 1000 times or 100,000%. Otherartists’ prices, such as Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, have shown a similartrend. Tadema’s Finding of Moses sold for £273 10 shillings in1942 and $35,922,500 in 2010. It does not seem possible that theskyrocketing auction prices of 19th paintings and thecontinual spread of the Contemporary Realist Movement are unrelated or isolatedin the trend of a global move towards realism. Galleries, including importantones like Hirschl and Adler, NYC, are selling and doing shows for realistartists again. Museums are acceptingrealist pieces into their collections, including those by living artists. JohnAngel recently had his portrait entitled Annigoni 1954, includedin the museum Villa Peyron in Florence, Italy. Thepainting is of Pietro Annigoni, a rare realist from the mid 20thcentury quoted for saying “Impulse alone does not make a work of art.” and “Iam convinced that the works of today’s avant-garde are the poisoned fruit of aspiritual decadence, with all the consequences that arise from a tragic loss oflove for life.” Living master and sculptor, Richard MacDonald, is currentlyworking on a massive multi-piece installation for the Royal Ballet, England. James Childs was commissioned to create a five meter frieze for The CulturalOrganization of the City of Athens during the Olympic Games of 2004, CodySwanson’s sculpture of Eve is displayed in the courtyard at theSpringville Museum of Art, Utah and Duffy Sheridan just finished a largelandscape commission for the Bahá’à World Centre in Haifa, Israel. These areonly a few examples of a growing trend and desirability for this type of work.
In reaction to more and more people re-appreciating traditional art, peopleare not afraid to say they don’t like modernism. Something that wasshocking to hear when ARC Chairman Fred Ross stated in his 2001 speechaddressing a crowd of over 700 portrait artists, gallery owners and members ofthe press at the Metropolitan Museum in New York saying, “Since most peoplearen’t devoted to or educated in fine art, they have successfully intimidated the bulk of humanity intocowering away in silence, feeling foolish for their inability to understand.The average person shrinks away from believing the reality of his or her ownsenses … what tends to happen to people who haveallowed themselves to be convinced that the emperor is wearing beautifulclothes, is that they have become ego invested due to years of having parrotedthe same falsehoods and the associated humiliation that goes with acknowledgingthat one has been had… If we don’t speak up and tell the world that theEmperor’s naked, nobody else will.”[6] Ross received a standing ovation. Today, more and morepeople are speaking out. For example, the Los Angeles Times reportedthat there recently has been public backlash to a national law in South Koreawhich was enacted 16 years ago and requires builders of large commercialprojects to commission an adjoining piece of art that equals 1% of the overallcost of the project. Since the law was enacted, 10,684 public art works wereerected at a cost of more than $546 million. Some in South Korea were going as far as tosay “the law had created a monster” with ugly and objectionable contemporaryworks being placed all over the country. The National Council was quotedas saying, “Current public art pieces haven’t been serving the public…In fact,the understanding of public art is lost because of this.” This conclusionwas made at an international conference they held to examine both domestic andinternational public art policies.[7] This is yet one more symptom of a global change away frommodernism, where traditional art is starting to capture a larger and largerportion of international hearts.
History has once again taken us full circle with the Contemporary Realistsas the underdogs trying to rise up and war against the tightly held modern artestablishment which has tried to suppress realism for 100 years through itsdevaluation, both as an expression of the human spirit and as a legitimate formof contemporary art. Realism is still a small portion of the work beingdone in the art world, but has found solid roots which continue to grow andflourish in a world desperate for art they can look at, recognize, and relateto without requiring long explanations or justifications. Using traditionalmethods of narrative storytelling, technical prowess, accuratedepictions of reality, beauty, balanced compositions, dramatic lighting, andmost importantly, subjects relating to and expressing mankind’s sharedhumanity, The Contemporary Realist movement has become representative of a fastgrowing global shift in the art world today.
Kara Lysandra Ross is the director of Operations for the Art Renewal Center and an expert in19th century European painting. [1] Yockney, Alfred. The Art Annual: The Art of E. Blair Leighton, London Virtue & Co, Christmas 1913, introduction
[2] E-maill from Anthony Waichulis to Kara Ross November 2, 2011
[3] Letter from Julian Halsby to Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center, March 11, 2002
[4] Letter from James Oliver to Art Renewal Center, March 26, 2002
[5] Letter from Jeanne Corbeil to Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center, January 14, 2008
[6] Fred Ross, Good Art Bad Art: Pulling Back the Curtain, June 7th 2001
[7] Jung-yoon Choi, Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2011
URL to article: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/the-contemporary-realist-movement-156836.html
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