Unreal: Photorealist Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Media - 2022.11.5 - SAAM-2022.11.5_1 - 147440

Audrey Flack, Queen, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 80 × 80 in. (203.2 × 203.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.5

From the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Photorealist painters helped define the image of postwar America. Artists such as Tom Blackwell, Audrey Flack, and Ralph Goings trained their eyes on the everyday places and things in world around them — diners, parking lots, cars, and blocks of newly built houses — and to the new relationships between nature and the city that had developed. Unreal explores the movement’s artistry and artifices, showing how its practitioners created an image of modern life that made it appear as though it just existed.

Description

Featuring 22 iconic works by 19 artists, Unreal examines the photorealist style through themes of "Postwar Landscape" and "Car Culture" as well as examples of still life and portraiture. These works show how the style was embedded in contemporary ideas about social change, gender, and technology. The exhibition situates the information and detail-driven style of the Photorealists within the larger context of the late 1960s and early 1970s, at a moment when major social and political events of the time, including the Vietnam War, the space race, and the new urbanism were interpreted through the filter of data and statistics. It explores how these artists created an image of a world that privileged information and a particular conception of identity to construct an environment that appeared as if it just existed.​

Unreal: Photorealist Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates a major gift to SAAM by Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel of paintings from their collection. The exhibition is organized by Sarah Newman, the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art.

Visiting Information

Online Gallery

Jack Mendenhall, Dining Room with Arbor, 1983, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.9
Dining Room with Arbor
Date1983
oil on canvas
Not on view
Robert Cottingham, Schaefer Beer, 1976, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.3
Schaefer Beer
Date1976
oil on canvas
Not on view
Davis Cone, Marion, 1982, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.13
Marion
Date1982
acrylic on canvas
Not on view
Richard McLean, Mackey Marie, 1971, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.8
Mackey Marie
Date1971
oil on canvas
Not on view
Tom Blackwell, Broadway, 1982, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.2
Broadway
Date1982
oil on canvas
Not on view
Audrey Flack, Tower of Pisa, 1971, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Philip Desind, 1986.90.2
Tower of Pisa
Date1971
oil on canvas
Not on view
Ralph Goings, Jeep 40 809B (Safway Jeep), 1969, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.6
Jeep 40809B (Safway Jeep)
Date1969
acrylic on canvas
Not on view
Tom Blackwell, Indian's Chopper Modified '57 Harley, 1971, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.1
Indian’s Chopper Modified 57 Harley
Date1971
oil on canvas
Not on view
John Salt, Two Chevies in a Wreck Yard, 1976, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.10
Two Chevies in a Wreck Yard
Date1976
oil on canvas
Not on view
Don Eddy, Wrecking Yard I, 1971, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.4
Wrecking Yard I
Date1971
acrylic on canvas
Not on view
Ron Kleemann, Manhattan on Hudson, 1979, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.7
Manhattan on Hudson
Date1979
acrylic on canvas
Not on view
Ben Schonzeit, Appliques and Two Porters, 1971, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.11
Appliques and Two Porters
Date1971
acrylic on canvas
Not on view
Idelle Weber, Vampirella--E. 2nd St., 1975, watercolor and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1976.66
Vampirella – E. 2nd St.
Date1975
watercolor and pencil on paper
Not on view
Audrey Flack, Queen, 1976, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.5
Queen
Date1976
acrylic on canvas
On view
Chuck Close, Alex Reduction Block, 1993, silk screen from reduction linoleum cut, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel, 2022.11.18
Alex Reduction Block
Date1993
silk screen from reduction linoleum cut
Not on view
Jesse Treviño, Mis Hermanos, 1976, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Lionel Sosa, Ernest Bromley, Adolfo Aguilar of Sosa, Bromley, Aguilar and Associates, 1994.74
Mis Hermanos
Date1976
acrylic on canvas
Not on view
Idelle Weber, Awning, 1977, watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Louis and Linda Lichtenberg Kaplan, 2001.68
Awning
Date1977
watercolor on paper
Not on view