Almost Alive ― Hyperrealististic Sculpture in Art

The way we see our bodies doesn’t always match how a photograph might portray them. From the 1960s onwards, many sculptors became involved with a mode of realism that explored not just how to depict the human body with photographic accuracy, but how to convey, through physically lifelike forms, the ways we perceive the body emotionally. Following a contemporary form of figural realism known as hyperrealism, these sculptors deploy traditional techniques of modeling, casting, and painting to craft a simulated reality, using finite details to highlight what is bizarre, abject, or dreamlike about our experience of the body.

This volume presents artworks by the most important sculptors of hyperrealism, from the early pioneers like George Segal, Duane Hanson, and John DeAndrea up to the current stars of the movement like Ron Mueck, Sam Jinks, Evan Penny, Tony Matelli, and Patricia Piccinini. Richly illustrated throughout, Almost Alive explores the complex and varied ways we are made aware of the human body.

Otto Letze is managing director of the Institute for Cultural Exchange in Tübingen, Germany. Nicole Fritz is director of the Kunsthalle Tübingen.