‘Fixing the Fleeting Moment’
HOUSATONIC MUSEUM OF ART HOSTS PHOTOREALISM EXHIBIT
Robbin Zella knows art can be alienating for some people. Zella, the director of the Housatonic Museum of Art at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, believes some people find art intimidating because they don’t always know what particular pieces “mean.” That’s why the photorealism movement that emerged in the 1960s was so important, she says. Photorealists were often painters who based their work on specific photos. The images they rendered were far more precise than the abstract expressionist and pop art movements that were also popular at the time, as the artists used painting techniques to mimic the focus, shading and other characteristics of images captured by a camera’s lens.
“For the museum-goer or the collecting public after many years of looking at paintings that they maybe didn’t understand and that didn’t have a (clear) narrative to walk into a gallery and understand what you’re looking at again, I think that had wide appeal for a lot of people,” Zella says.
However, the movement was relatively short-lived, and some critics denounced the technique of mimicking specific photographs — sometimes using such tools as grid systems and projectors — as “cheating,” and didn’t consider it real art. Others admired the skill needed to create paintings that resembled photographs, and Zella says the genre is gaining new consideration.
To that end, the Housatonic Museum is presenting the exhibition “Photorealism: Fixing the Fleeting Moment” from now through December 2021. The exhibit features nine photorealistic pieces from the museum’s collection.
Overall, Zella says, photorealism is a unique genre, partly because of the independence of its artists. “The impressionists were a group of people who knew each other and spoke to one another and some of them even painted together,” she says. “The photorealists were not a collective group where they were meeting and discussing ideas. They emerged independent of each other.”
Pieces in the Housatonic show include “Market Diner,” a 1979 piece by John Baeder. Baeder says he became interested in photorealism “just sort of naturally. I started painting in this sort of postcard style.”
Baeder says he became particularly interested in photographing and painting diners while living in Darien. “I started photographing diners in the Darien area — I didn’t know I was going to paint them,” he says. “I saw diners as temples. I grew up in Atlanta, and we didn’t really have any diners.”
Zella says the exhibit is the first of two photorealism shows that will be at the museum. After this initial exhibit was announced, Louis Meisel, an art gallery owner in New York who coined the phrase “photorealism” in the late 1960s, offered to donate nine pieces, which will comprise a second show.
Meisel says he has been an art enthusiast since visiting the Modern Museum of Art in the 1950s. “My whole purpose in life is to support certain artists and certain musicians,” he says.
He says he coined the term photorealism while speaking with an art critic at an early show of photorealist works. The critic, Meisel says, asked him what he called the style of painting and the name just came to him. Meisel says he’s supported the Housatonic museum for a while and, when he heard about the upcoming show, he felt his pieces would be a good contribution.
Zella says she was thrilled about the donation. “These are important pieces, of national recognition,” she says.
Due to the pandemic, an appointment to visit the museum is necessary for those wishing to view the show. Visitors must be prepared to comply with social distancing rules and wear protective face masks. A video essay about the exhibition is available by visiting the museum’s website, www.HousatonicMuseum. org. To plan a visit, call 203-332-5052.