JSRArtStudio

A century and a half ago, an artistic movement widely known as Realism developed in France under the brushes of such artists as Gustave Courbet, Jean François Millet, and Honoré Daumier. They reacted to the prevailing Romanticism of their day by portraying what they saw as real life, from the toil of country folk to the plight of urban dwellers.
Realism, in turn, paved the way for the turn-of-the-century Impressionist movement, which used everyday life as subject matter for artworks that presented reality in a ravishing new light.

Then, as surely as World War I ravaged Europe, that era?s advent of modernism abruptly overshadowed some seven decades of realistic art. Cubism, Fauvism, expressionism, minimalism, surrealism, abstraction, and a host of other movements marching under the modernist banner captivated the imaginations of collectors, teachers, and critics alike. These anti-realists came to dominate the world of 20th-century art.

But Realism never died. You might say, instead, that it went underground: taught in a few diehard schools and ateliers; practiced by a small cadre of dedicated artists; sold by galleries, bought by collectors, and shown by a handful of museums that still saw true value in representational art.

And today, at the dawn of a new century, Realism has emerged anew. As representational art enjoys tremendous restored popularity nationwide, we examine its resurgence through the keen perceptions of the people most closely involved in its revival: the gallery owners, artists and teachers, auction experts, and museum curators who have kept the movement alive and nurtured it back to thriving new prominence. As a past art appreciation student of James S. Rousonelos, I have come to appreciate the sophistication of realism with respect.

William