Hyper-realistic expressions that look as if they could be mistaken for the real thing, works that one has no idea how they were created.
Artworks that are called "superb art" are those that challenge the limits of human artistry.
In Japan, exhibitions titled "Superlative Techniques" are often held and attract much attention.
In this issue, we will immerse ourselves in the worldview of superb artists from the East and West.

(1) "Manabu Ikeda," who paints ultra-detailed, ultra-large paintings with a pen.

Manabu Ikeda, who completed his master's degree at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2000, continues to create meticulously detailed paintings with simple materials, a round pen and colored ink, in Japan, the United States, and Canada.
In "History of the Rise and Fall" (2006), Ikeda's first painting on the theme of Japan, he presents a spectacular painting in which multiple timelines from the past to the present coexist in a single painting, with castles of various shapes, sloping walls, cherry blossoms, and people, all inspired by his hobby of rock climbing, stacked in every direction. He never makes preliminary sketches.
He does not make preliminary sketches, but always paints precisely while keeping an eye on the whole picture, so that even if he painted for eight hours a day, the size of the painting would still be about 10 cm square.

Manabu Ikeda, History of the Rise and Fall, 2006, pen and ink on paper, 200 x 200 cm

(2) "Chuck Claus," a realistic portrait on a huge screen

Chuck Close (1940 - 2021) is a representative painter of "photorealism" that emerged in the United States. He studied at Washington and Yale University and made portrait painting history with his series of portraits on huge canvases. In his early work, he focused on the photorealist technique of copying photographs, but later experimented with painting in a variety of styles, including pixel-like digital images and the impressionist style.
He developed various techniques, such as transferring photographs onto canvas by cutting them into a grid pattern like a mosaic, and finger painting. In particular, his technique using an airbrush was an inspiration for the later development of inkjet printers, and he has contributed not only to the history of painting but also to the history of printing technology.
In his later years, he was accused of sexual harassment of women in the past during the Metoo movement, but he was a man of established reputation whose works are in more than 70 museums around the world.

Chuck Close, "Leslie," 1972 - 1973, watercolor on paneled paper, 184.2 x 144.8 cm

(3) "Etsuhiro Suda" places realistic sculptures in unexpected places.

Etsuhiro Suda (1969- ) creates wood carvings of plants and flowers so exquisite they could be mistaken for the real thing, and places them in unexpected locations to create installations throughout the space.
Suda consistently carves condensed forms of small plants that give a modest but definite sense of life within an entire space.
He says, "I don't want to stop at just making things realistic. When you look at something, it is impossible not to see the space around it. Then I believe that the space is also more important.
I make a certain thing and a certain time exist in a certain place, where they should not exist, and only in a certain case."

Etsuhiro Suda, "Go Club," 2006

4) "Ron Mueck," a sculptor who reproduces even body hair

Ron Mueck (1958 - ) is a hyperrealist sculptor from Australia.
At the beginning of his career, Mueck made models and puppets for children's television and movies. He also created props (props) for advertisements, but the props were such that the structure could be seen from the back. But he was motivated to create realistic sculptures that were perfect from every angle.
With the help of his mother-in-law, Paula Rego, who was a painter by trade, Mueck set out on his own. Charles Saatchi, the owner of a major British gallery, took a liking to Mueck, and he quickly made his mark in the contemporary art world with "Dead Dad," a detailed representation of his late father. Mueck used his own hair for this work.
Mueck is also well known in the Japanese art scene, as his work is housed in the Towada Museum of Contemporary Art in Towada City, Aomori Prefecture.

Ron Mueck, "Dead Dad," 1996 - 1997

5) "Fuyuki Maehara," a sculptor who expresses wabi and sabi through wood carving

Fuyuki Maehara (1962 - ) is an artist with a unique career. After working as a professional boxer and an office worker, he entered the oil painting department of Tokyo University of the Arts at the age of 32 and graduated at the top of his class.
His graduation project was a semi-three-dimensional work, but he later switched to wood carving and has since been producing amazing one-wood works.
Although he says that he is completely self-taught in sculpture, his experience in the oil painting department may have contributed to his skill in creating a texture that could be mistaken for the real thing when he paints with oil.
The objects that have been discarded, decayed, or rusted, and have had time etched into their surfaces, are all part of Maehara's work. Maehara's works express the time and memories that are embedded in objects in a condensed form.

Fuyuki Maehara, "A Moment" (2006)

6) "Richard Estes" conclusively depicts American urban landscapes

Richard Estes (1932 - ), a New York City artist, has captured the urban landscape, a product of modern civilization, from show windows and other street scenes to skyscrapers, with his cool-headed gaze.
As an artist who expresses the modern age through his thorough and precise depiction, he is known as a representative of photorealism along with Chuck Close, John Beader, and others.
The hard, cold texture of stainless steel and the bluish-white glow reflected in the stainless steel are characteristic motifs of Estes' paintings. He studied at the University of the Art Institute of Chicago and worked as an illustrator in New York and Spain before establishing himself as a professional painter in 1966.

Richard Estes, Telephone Booths, 1968.

7) "Kaoru Ueda" transforms the everyday into wonder through "shit realism

Kaoru Ueda (1928- ) is a painter who creates exquisite paintings with unique compositions in the vein of Super Realism.
He is known for his technique of depicting phenomenal textures that appear in everyday life, such as raw eggs and jam, more vividly than in reality, which is called "shit realism" by him.
He studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts and began his career in graphic design, returning to pictorial expression around 1970, when he created the concept of "fucking realism.
Many of the motifs in his works change their forms in an instant, such as a raw egg at the moment its shell is broken, jam about to flow off a spoon, flowing water, or the sky. His vivid depictions of time and space are highly acclaimed for their unique place in realist painting.

Kaoru Ueda, Spoon on Egg B, 1987

8) "Marilyn Minter," characterized by her depiction of slippery textures

Marilyn Minter (1948 - ) is a painter positioned in the context of American hyperrealism.
Combining images centered on the lips of a woman with her mouth wide open as if she is screaming with images of water-soaked glass, she creates paintings that resist racism and homophobia.
The motifs, in which a small part of the body is greatly magnified and painted under a filter as if seen through a rain-soaked windowpane, evoke pornographic elements, eroticism and fetishism. However, Minter insists that it is not Minter personally who has a mouth fetish, but the world that is eminently fetishistic.

Marilyn Minter, "Big Breath," 2016.

⑨"Kohsho Ikeda" combines contemporary technology with craftsmanship

Kohsho Ikeda (1987 - ), who studied lacquer art at Kanazawa College of Art, is highly acclaimed for his style of using the traditional Japanese craft technique of raden (mother-of-pearl inlay) to apply a series of numbers to the surface of objects, reminiscent of the near future depicted in the movie "The Matrix.
By meticulously pasting together "raden chips" processed with modern technologies such as pulsed laser cutting and ultrasonic vibration machines used in IC chip production, the images are created as if electric currents and data were visualized as they are.
Not only boxes, chuji (a type of thin tea utensil), and other vessels frequently produced in the craft, but also square pyramids and pieces of wood transformed in the Ikeda style are eye-catching.

Hyakusen Kinjiryu Kogai (one hundred and one thousand golden incense containers)

10) "Antonio Lopez," who spends more than 10 years on a single painting

Antonio Lopez Garcia (1936 - ), one of the leading masters of contemporary Spanish realist art, pursues the ultimate in realist painting through his outstanding powers of observation and the skill to fully express them.
Lopez is relentless in his pursuit of capturing the transitions of time in a single image, sometimes spending up to ten years on a single painting. However, his paintings, whether completed or left unfinished, exude a dense stillness.
He insists on the simplest act of seeing and photographing, and says he never uses photographs.
I'm not interested in fads. Spanish art has always been the work of my own eyes and hands. What is important is the emotion and its presence. That's why I have nothing to do with photography."
The artist has been internationally acclaimed, with major solo exhibitions at the Queen Sofia National Center for the Arts in Madrid in 1993, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2008, and two other museums in Spain in 2011 and 2012.

Antonio Lopez Garcia, Madrid desde Torres Blancas, 1974.




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