Friday, March 30, 2012

Positive Quiddity: Paul Cadden's Hyperrealist Art

Paul Cadden, 47, often using simply a pencil, creates drawings, usually of human faces, which are as detailed as a photograph. This school, hyperrealist art, is startling.

My own wish would be that he base his drawings on multiple photographs rather than a single shot. The photographs from which the work is based are extreme close-ups, so much so that the nose or mouth is fully in focus but the ears, for example, are out of focus. With a series of different, ideally simultaneous, photographs upon which to base a drawing, he could out-do photography with a drawing that is equally sharply focused throughout the face, an equivalent to "deep focus" cinematography.

There is a startlingly humane element in Cadden’s art. Whereas in modeling and in motion pictures, only the prettiest features catch our attention, Cadden’s ability to draw lined faces, weary eyes and grey hair adds a human element very seldom caught by a camera unless it is wielded by a master like the late Gordon Parks.

In a perfect world, perhaps this sort of hyperrealism would be the center of our animated movies, for a neuvo-surrealism and for urgently needed, superbly wry political cartoons.

Take a look at some of Cadden’s drawings at this link:

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/realistic-drawings-look-like-photographs-1333124926-slideshow/

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