Word: realism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...portraits happen to be among the oldest painted likenesses in the Western world. Earlier Egyptians and Mesopotamian peoples depicted their kings and pharaohs with rigid stylization; Greeks in the age of Pericles idealized the human face and form. It was not until the era of Alexander the Great that realism of any kind became fashionable. From the many Hellenistic and Roman busts of marble that have survived we know how the ancients saw and depicted themselves. But the moist climates of Greece and Italy have long since sent most classical paintings (except those buried under the ashes and lava...
...spatula). Today, these paintings tell historians most of what is known about portrait technique 1,100 years before the Renaissance. Modeling and shading were expertly done. Except that the anonymous workmen of Faiyum customarily enlarged eyes (large pupils being considered at the time a sign of beauty), classical realism was faithful in portraying hair styles, jewelry, wrinkles and occasionally double chins...
...such pop artists as Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. But by startling contrast, William Seitz, former curator of Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art, who picked the entries, opted for a real grandpop to stage the major U.S. one-man show: Edward Hopper, 84, an old master of realism whose cityscapes go back to his association with the "Ashcan" realists. When someone suggested that Hop might be a bit old-fashioned to be keeping such company, Seitz snapped: "It would be ridiculous to eliminate the best artists simply because they were over 40, or were not the discovery...
First, the scenery. John Lithgow has built the play's four settings with a number of large flats, all but two of them reasonably realistic. The remaining two, used in every act, are unfortunate red concoctions resembling giant Jackson Pollack paintings; they seriously throw off the basic realism of both play and production. Also intruding on the believability of a Dublin tenement are strange hairy things which hang without visible purpose from the proscenium...
Both of these performances combine to eradicate the first act. Almost from the moment the curtain rises, O'Casey's realism is locked in battle with the stylized portions of the set, the vaudeville walk of Schlesinger, and the youthful voice and bearing of Hurd. It is this conflict--between the play and the production--which dominates the act and totally obscures its content. Because of it, Jack and Nora Clitheroe can make no impression as characters, and much of the later action, particularly in the last act, means nothing because the Clitheroes mean nothing...