Hyperrealism

Hunter Museum of American Art

This group features varying treatments of the hyperrealist trends of the 1980s. Robert Bechtle’s photorealist tryptic offers a barely inhabited, deadpan urban scene that reveals the recently deceased California artist’s interest in working-class America. Daniel Sprick’s depiction of his wife—in the back of a scene crowded by tropical plants, glazed vases, and African masks—reveals the capacity of hyperrealism to build narrative intrigue, while Jack Beal’s life-size depiction of a group of paintings situates the viewer squarely in the place of the sitter.