REAL HYPERREALITY

Hyperrealistic Sculpture. Almost Alive. This is the name of the exhibition, welcoming the visitors on the first floor of the Heydar Aliyev Centre and featuring sculptures of various artists from Australia, Canada, Macedonia, France, the US and other countries. Hyperrealism is an artistic trend in painting and sculpture based on photographic reproduction of reality.

As a term, hyperrealism was coined by Isy Brachot in 1973 as a synonym for the French word photorealism. That’s how he called the catalogue and exhibition held in Brussels (1973), which mostly featured the works of American photorealists. But this was in the seventies. In the sixties, American artists experimented with painting and sculpture, reflecting the world with the help of new technologies. It turned out that it was possible to create masterpieces using synthetic materials, silicone, plastic, rubber, mixed techniques, decor and various props. However, it took the world community some time to recognise the names of the ‘founding fathers’ of the genre: John de Andrea, Duane Hanson, George Sage, etc. After a decade though, the new trend crossed the ocean to conquer the workshops of European and Asian artists.

Hyperrealism is one of the most popular trends in modern art. It rightfully deserves a prominent place among all other genres of art. Geography of the works presented at the exhibition in Baku covers the names of artists from different countries of the world, including Duane Hanson with his famous Cowboy with Hay.

Cowboy with Hay. Life-Size

Bronze, polymeric materials, mixed techniques, accessories. This is a strong man in his twenties, dressed like a hero of typical American westerns of the 60s. He holds a lasso in his hands. His hair slightly clings to the face, tanned under the burning sun of the prairies and shining with a healthy glow. It seems he’s contemplating something silently, looking at the compressed briquette of hay resting next to him. If you stay focused on his face for longer, he seems to be a real person, not a sculpture, as if this guy with a flushed complexion will turn his head to you with wonder. A sense of mysticism does not leave you for a second. It seems that the exhibition halls are teeming with not the exhibits, but real people. Each of them has own history, character and fate.

Sam Jinks. Woman and Child

Mixed techniques and materials. An elderly woman is holding a new-born baby tightly nestling against her breast. The skin on the arms and body of the baby and on woman’s face, her gaze, the position of her hands look not only realistic, but also touching. It seems that she will step forward in a moment, leaving for another room because she needs to wrap the baby with a blanket.

Jamie Salmon. Lily

Silicone, pigment, acrylic plaster, etc. This is a young woman with her hair falling onto her naked shoulders, creating an impression of light artistic negligence, the one that is so appealing. Matte skin, neck bending, promising look... There is something in her appearance from that primordial femininity, which never ceases to attract, like the original sin. It is this work that makes the men visitors linger the longest. She doesn’t seem anything special with her head, shoulders, strands of flowing hair, half smiling sensual lips, sober look... But, apparently, Lily is holding that typical woman’s secret that only men can recognise.

Mel Ramos. Chiquita Banana

Polychrome, synthetics, rubber. This is a 18+ sculpture exhibited in a separate hall of the centre. Like the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, who rose out of white sea foam, the girl is born for love. But this is what you need to see yourself, like all other works presented here, because associative thinking can provoke many different interpretations. It is therefore important that this is your own interpretation of the sculpture. No one else’s! There are a few more works here that the organisers do not recommend for underage visitors. So, we will refrain from reviewing them here, leaving room for your own interpretation and imagination.

Through the eyes of our guests

A group of tourists attracts our attention. It turns out that they are from Israel. They are enthusiastically watching the exhibits, discussing what they see, taking selfies and studying each of them with utmost attention, briskly, without hiding emotions. They are standing next to the sculpture of Kneeling Woman by Sam Jinks. What is so appealing to them in this figure of a lying girl? Her face is barely visible, as she lies with her face down to her hands. We learn that our guests are impressed by the shade of her skin, the sensation of living muscles, bundled natural hair, skin on the fingers, small wrinkles, barely visible on the skin, etc. We ask the Israelites what exactly delighted them. The eldest of seven women named Khana replied that they it was their first visit to Baku and they enjoyed everything here. The trip to the Heydar Aliyev Centre was planned when they were still in Tel Aviv. They learned about the exhibition from the Internet. They were interested to see the building itself, which seems to be an architectural masterpiece, and the exhibition. They had seen the wax figures at the Madame Tussauds’ in London, as well as the Wax Museum in St. Petersburg, but the exhibition they visited in Baku had a very strong emotional impression on them because the exhibits looked not just real, but hyperreal.

The Mini-Azerbaijan exhibition not only introduced ​​the country, but also impressed the group of Israeli women with the scope of transformations. Although their stay in Azerbaijan has not ended, as they planned to travel to Sheki and Gakh in the weekend, they were sure that they would take unforgettable impressions with them back to Israel.

Exhibition geography

Before visiting Baku, Hyperrealistic Sculpture. Almost Alive has been hosted in Australia, Germany, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands and Mexico. Now it’s Azerbaijan’s turn to host this brilliant event, a small milestone in the cultural life of ​​a rapidly changing country, where art is highly developed and attracts a genuine interest. It is good to see that the projects initiated by the Heydar Aliyev Centre also include educational activities. After all, this kind of exhibitions gives the residents of our country, as well as the guests of Baku and Azerbaijan an opportunity to see the masterpieces of the world art right here, without leaving the country! The exhibition features twenty works of sculptors from around the world. It is quite enough to get an emotional and intellectual impression of that hyperreality that shakes, stuns and intrigues with a new look at art!

The exhibition, organised by the Heydar Aliyev Centre and the German Institute for Cultural Exchange, will be open until March 10, 2019. During the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Executive Director of the Institute, Maximilian Letze, said: "Baku is a city with a modern look and a multicultural approach. The opening of this exhibition in such a city is commendable. In fact, this is a true image of the attractiveness of art."