Thinking about the theme of building on the classics, I’ve concluded that nothing could be more appropriate than to ask and answer this question: Why realism?
There are finally today many organizations that believe in the value and importance of realism, both classical and contemporary; but why realism? Why, after a century of denigration, repression, and near annihilation, when the accepted beliefs taught in nearly every high school, college, and university for the last hundred years have been that realism is unoriginal?
After all, all realists do is just copy from nature. Realism, they say, is unsophisticated.
Most people can tell what is going on in realistic painting or sculpture. It’s so easy to understand. It’s uncreative; only creating forms and ideas not found in nature show real originality. So the question of the day for society—and for realist artists, the question for the month, year, and really for the rest of their
Article source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/645882-why-realism-part-1-building-on-the-classics/