Hyperrealism: Strange Bodies at Hirshhorn

Ron Mueck - Untitled (Big Man), 2000
pigmented polyester resin on fiberglass

Lucian Freud - Nude with Leg Up (Leigh Bowery), 1992
oil paint on linen

I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them, not having the look of the sitter, being them (Lucian Freud): I think this is a good explanation for hyperrealism. A person becomes real only when the ugly, the imperfect, the sordid, the unpleasant, are present; otherwise it's an image.

John Currin - The Pink Tree, 1999
oil paint on linen

Strange Bodies is on view at Hirshhorn.


(Hirshhorn Museum)
(Contemporary Art)