Abstracted Realism
Finding common ground between randomness and coherence
When you get close to a realist painting and study a random square inch of it, is it orderly or chaotic? Intelligible or random? Is the artist driven by conscious intention or intuitive impulse?
There are different styles within realism known as "deconstructed realism," "disrupted realism" or "abstracted realism" which explore how an illusion of reality can be composed of energetic atoms.
Alex Kanevsky’s artwork for example (above), demonstrates that the power of chaos rivals the power of order, and the will to destroy challenges the will to create. Kanevsky says: “Delusion, illusion, or diversion are infinitely more interesting than what poses as everyday reality."
The painting contains both randomness and illusionism, signal and noise.
Who are the inspiring progenitors of this movement? Beyond the abstract painters such as Franz Kline and Richard Diebenkorn, several realist painters can be identified as stylistic influencers:
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