Although representational and realistic paintings have been excluded in recent history as valid contemporary art practice, contemporary realism is enjoying a comeback in the art world. Painters are employing a combination of genres and techniques to create their images. They are experimenting with the marriage of historical representational techniques and contemporary sensibilities and subject matter. Investigating Contemporary Realism Contemporary Realism in the arts is a modern movement in which painters depict accurate, detailed scenes of nature and contemporary life. Within those subject areas, however, painters take dramatically different approaches to both their materials and their subjects.
Many painters combine different genres and styles of art within a single painting.
This month s featured artist Robert Lyn Nelson, for instance, combines contemporary realism with fantasy to create hybrid scenes that are representational, but with a distinct style that communicates the artist s personal idealized vision of marine nature. The French Realists of the 19th century conscientiously set themselves to reproducing aspects of contemporary life and society that had always been excluded in fine art. They painted more scenes of the lower and middle classes, of the unexceptional, the ordinary, the humble and the unadorned. They showed the mental attitudes, physical settings, and material conditions of real life. Although representational and realistic paintings have been excluded in recent history as valid contemporary art practice, contemporary realism is enjoying a comeback in the art world.