These days, we’re faced with the vexing question of whether an image is AI-generated or created by human hands—whether it was photographed or painted. In the good old days of photorealism, it was sometimes nearly impossible to tell whether a work of art was a photograph or a painting. That’s a far less frustrating question, since both are serious art forms that require a great deal of talent. With “Competition with Reality—60 Years of Photorealism,” Hirmer Verlag and the Frieder Burda Museum are celebrating the artistic movement that began to take shape in the United States in the 1960s—with a book and an exhibition.
Competing with Reality – 60 Years of Photorealism
Ever since humans began scribbling on stone, painting has always aspired to depict reality. After wild forays into abstraction, artists began turning back to representational painting in the mid-1960s. Motifs from everyday American life often served as inspiration: cars, diners, colorful neon signs. The illustrated book *Wettstreit mit der Wirklichkeit – 60 Jahre Fotorealismus* (Competition with Reality—60 Years of Photorealism), by Hirmer, celebrates the art of illusionistic painting—featuring around 80 masterpieces by more than 20 artists, including Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, and Karin Kneffel. The exhibition of the same name at the Museum Frieder Burda is one of the largest exhibitions to date on the visual worlds of photorealism in a museum in Germany.
Book: Daniel Zamani (ed.), “Competing with Reality—60 Years of Photorealism,” Hirmer, 200 pages, approx. 50.—, hirmerverlag.de
Exhibition: “Competing with Reality – 60 Years of Photorealism,” Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, through August 2, 2026, museum-frieder-burda.de
You can grab the book here.
Photos: © Hirmer Verlag, Frieder Burda Museum
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