Photorealism developed in the late 1960s and ’70s in reaction to Abstract Expressionism, which had dominated art since the 1940s. This style often seems more real than reality, where no detail is left out and no flaw is insignificant.
Some artists copy photographs by projecting them onto a canvas to accurately capture precise details. Others do it freehand or use a grid system to enlarge a print or photo. One of the best-known photorealistic painters is Chuck Close, whose mural-size headshots of fellow artists and celebrities are based on snapshots.
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