The term “contemporary art” has long been associated with the modernist and postmodernist movements because at the time those trends emerged, the words “contemporary art” or “modern art” also meant the art of the day. However, these movements started decades ago, and today the terms have become misleading.
A new movement of living artists is taking back the word “contemporary” and associating it with the traditional techniques of the old masters applied to the human experience as well as important subjects of the times.
The general public is growing tired of art that needs long explanations and justifications. More and more people want to recognize what they are looking at and respond to it on a humanist level rather than a purely conceptual one.
The contemporary realist movement first started as a reaction to the modernists and postmodernists, who still dominate the art market today.
When one can take a found object, put it in a museum and call it art, the general feeling among this growing movement is that the definition of art has become so broad that the word “art,” as defined by the current art establishment, ceases to have meaning.
The modernist movement originated in the early 1900s, and one critic of that time noted, “The avowed purpose of art has been tampered with by introducing the elements of a missing-word composition. ... Many friends of art expect that it will meet its fate, but a few champions see a revolution in progress.” [1]
The modernist underdogs quickly took hold of the art world, completely dominating it by the end of the 1940s. After the tragedy of two world wars and the Great Depression, humanity was left with a heart of cynicism and a mind filled with existentialist thoughts, two qualities that modern and postmodern art took to its core.
In reaction to this negative view on humanity and its accomplishments, the contemporary realists felt mankind was best served by depicting through art, the qualities in life that unite us as people, rather than the debasement of civilization.
Nothing says more about a culture than the art it idolizes. Art represents what a culture values, what its people think about, and essentially what they deem worth remembering. Art is the representation of a people, encapsulating their essence on every level.
These artists believe there is more to great art than Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” which is really nothing more than a toilet, or Jackson Pollack’s oeuvre, which is nothing more than splattered paint.
Contemporary realists looked back at the art that pre-dated those global catastrophes, to the old masters, and especially the classical artists of the 19th century, whose works reached their zenith just before the onset of modernism. They are now the progenitors of a renaissance with new themes encapsulating freedom of speech through visual storytelling.
The Internet has become the most important tool for the realist movement. It allowed the movement to gain serious traction about 10 years ago by linking like-minded people together, enabling them to find each other and promote their thoughts to others.
Through groups such as good GoodArt, the Art Renewal Center (A.R.C.) was founded as a center for Realism. It became the largest online museum and the only one at that time dedicated to traditional art.
ARC searched out the remaining few atelier schools that still used the training methods of the old masters. Finding only 14 in existence at that time, with less than 200 students, ARC advertised them to the public.
Since that time, the atelier schools have grown dramatically, with more and more created every year. On the Art Renewal website, 72 atelier schools and workshops are now listed, with many times the number of students, and more are out there that are not listed.
Other alliances have also formed, such as the American Society of Classical Realism, International Guild of Realism, American Society of Portrait Artists, Oil Painters of America, Chinese International Figure Painting, and the California Arts Club, among many others.
Magazines now exist that are dedicated to Realism, such as Fine Art Connoisseur, Plein Air, Artist Advocate, American Arts Quarterly, Art of the West, and others.
Head instructor of the Ani Art Academy Waichulis, Anthony Waichulis, says: “Over the past few years, I have found that applications and program inquiries have increased tenfold. It seems that this ever-growing resurgence in Realism is encouraging new aspiring artists to enthusiastically pursue fundamental skill building on a scale I have not seen before.
“This is truly a wonderful thing, as I believe that effective education is one of the most powerful tools we have to shape the future,” he said.[2]
These groups are all united, figuratively if not literally, in their goal to bring realist painting, drawing, and sculpture back to the forefront of contemporary art
The atelier schools are the foundation of the movement. They are the source of the proper training that is denied in most university and college art curriculums.
For example, when I was getting my bachelor’s degree at Drew University (in New Jersey), which has a reputable arts program, I signed up for a sculpture course. When I got to the class, I learned that it did not involve clay, but it did involve found objects. When I asked what level of sculpture started work with clay, I was told that I would need to take a ceramics course if I wanted to make pots.
As most realist artists know, clay is a foundational tool in learning how to sculpt the human figure, something the college 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 reported similar experiences.
Julian Halsby wrote: “I am writing from Britain to say how much I support your movement for the restoration of traditional values in art. There are many of us here in the U.K. who believe that modern art is in many ways a confidence trick and that traditional values must be restored in art schools.
“We have a magazine called The Jackdaw, in which David Lee attacks the Art Establishment. … I write for The Artist magazine and often express views similar to yours.” [3]
James Oliver wrote: “I am an artist who has been disenchanted with the art world to such a degree that I have pursued a science education instead. I think this site is the first real indication that the madness is beginning to clear as humankind rediscovers the beautiful.” [4]
“As an artist and teacher, I believe that the future will only be possible if we infuse the arts back where they always belonged, at the heart of human education,” Jean Corbeil wrote.”[5]
These are only a small taste of the more than 400 letters posted on the ARC website—letters that have come in from all over the world and express similar views and experiences.
Continued: Unlike “normal” art schools, atelier schools focus entirely on representational art ...
Unlike conventional art schools, atelier schools focus entirely on representational art. Their strict training curriculums often require artists to take one or two years of drawing before being told they can move on to paint.
In the Aristides Classical Atelier’s book “Lessons in Classical Drawing,” head instructor Juliette Aristides writes: “Your work, whether drawing, painting, or sculpture will stand only if it is constructed on a solid foundation. … Drawing is the most basic passageway through which you can access the power of art to express profound universal ideas, feelings, beliefs, and truths.”
At the Angel Academy of Art, in Florence, Italy, John Angel utilizes methods that have been developed over the last six centuries, not allowing them to die out. Over the years, he has watched his school grow and is convinced about a new trend: “The 21st century is seeing a renaissance in humanism, in the concern for a human way of life and in the figurative-art forms which echo that very thing.”
Atelier schools, organizations, magazines, and websites are not the only telling signs of the re-emergence of traditional art. Auction prices for realist paintings and sculpture have increased dramatically in the last 35 years, especially for the 19th century, with paintings by artists such as William Bouguereau going up in some cases 1,000 times or 100,000 percent.
It does not seem possible that the skyrocketing auction prices of 19th century paintings and the continual spread of the contemporary realist movement are unrelated or isolated in the trend of a global move toward realism.
Galleries, including important ones like Hirschl and Adler, in New York, are selling and doing shows for realist artists again. Museums are accepting realist pieces into their collections, including those by living artists.
John Angel recently had his portrait titled “Annigoni 1954” included in the museum Villa Peyron in Florence, Italy. The painting is of Pietro Annigoni, a rare realist from the mid 20th century, who is quoted as saying, “Impulse alone does not make a work of art.”
Living master and sculptor Richard MacDonald is currently working on a massive multi-piece installation for the Royal Ballet of England. James Childs was commissioned to create a 16.4-foot frieze for the Cultural Organization of the City of Athens during the 2004 Olympic Games.
Cody Swanson’s sculpture of Eve is displayed in the courtyard at the Springville Museum of Art, in Utah. Duffy Sheridan just finished a large landscape commission for the Baha'i World Center in Haifa, Israel. These are only 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, people are not afraid to say they don’t like modernism.
ARC Chairman Fred Ross stated in his 2001 speech, addressing a crowd of over 700 portrait artists, gallery owners, and members of the press at the Metropolitan Museum in New York: “Since most people aren’t devoted to or educated in fine art, they have successfully intimidated the bulk of humanity into cowering away in silence, feeling foolish for their inability to understand.
“The average person shrinks away from believing the reality of his or her own senses. … What tends to happen to people who have allowed themselves to be convinced that the emperor is wearing beautiful clothes, is that they have become ego-invested due to years of having parroted the same falsehoods and the associated humiliation that goes with acknowledging that one has been had. … If we don’t speak up and tell the world that the Emperor’s naked, nobody else will.” [6]
Ross received a standing ovation.
Today, more and more people are speaking out. For example, the Los Angeles Times reported that there recently has been public backlash to a national law in South Korea which was enacted 16 years ago and requires builders of large commercial projects to commission an adjoining piece of art that equals 1 percent of the overall cost of the project.
Since the law was enacted, 10,684 public art works were erected at a cost of more than $546 million. Some in South Korea went so far as to say that the law had created a “monster,” with ugly and objectionable contemporary works being placed all over the country.
The National Council was quoted as saying, “Current public art pieces haven’t been serving the public. … In fact, the understanding of public art is lost because of this.” This conclusion was made at an international conference held to examine both domestic and international public art policies. [7]
This is yet one more symptom of a global change away from modernism, with traditional art starting to capture a larger and larger number of hearts internationally.
History has once again taken us full circle with the contemporary realists as the underdogs trying to rise up and war against the tightly held modern art establishment, which has tried to suppress realism for 100 years through its devaluation, both as an expression of the human spirit and as a legitimate form of contemporary art.
Realism is still a small portion of the work being done in the art world but has found solid roots that continue to grow and flourish in a world desperate for art they can look at, recognize, and relate to without requiring long explanations or justifications.
Using traditional methods of narrative storytelling, technical prowess, accurate depictions of reality, beauty, balanced compositions, dramatic lighting, and most importantly, subjects relating to and expressing mankind’s shared humanity, The contemporary realist movement has become representative of a fast-growing global shift in the art world today.
Kara Lysandra Ross is the director of Operations for the Art Renewal Center and an expert in 19th century European painting.
Endnotes
[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
